Iraq's war against IS terrorism | Updates and Discussions
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notorious_eagle
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@hellfire Sir
Are you following this? It appears the Iraqis are aiming to attack Mosul by the end of the year. ISIS is a spent force in Iraq and will most certainly face defeat. It is not the same force that we saw in 2014. They lost their best Officers and Fighters in Kobani, and are now mostly bolstered by conscripts. The Chechans which were the elite commandos are mostly dead, they don't have much cash left and they have picked fights with everyone. Once these Iraqi Militas are done in Iraq, they will descent into Syria. I just don't see Assad loosing anymore. The only winner i see here is Iran. What a flawless strategic play from being almost attacked in 2003, to being a power player in the Middle East with deep influence in Iraq and Syria.
Are you following this? It appears the Iraqis are aiming to attack Mosul by the end of the year. ISIS is a spent force in Iraq and will most certainly face defeat. It is not the same force that we saw in 2014. They lost their best Officers and Fighters in Kobani, and are now mostly bolstered by conscripts. The Chechans which were the elite commandos are mostly dead, they don't have much cash left and they have picked fights with everyone. Once these Iraqi Militas are done in Iraq, they will descent into Syria. I just don't see Assad loosing anymore. The only winner i see here is Iran. What a flawless strategic play from being almost attacked in 2003, to being a power player in the Middle East with deep influence in Iraq and Syria.
An air strike conducted by the US-led coalition in Iraq "most likely" killed around 20 pro-government Sunni tribal fighters south of Mosul on Wednesday, a senior defense official told AFP.
Sheikh Nazhan Sakhr al-Lihaybi, the commander of the fighters who were killed, said they had succeeded in repelling an attack by Islamic State jihadists in the area, and were bombed when they gathered after the end of the fighting.
Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/afp/2016/10/iraq-conflict-qayyarah-strike-us.html#ixzz4MEH2vDv
Sad news, they have to find a solution to prevent it from happening. Whether embedding JTAC with the ISF or something else. They supposedly fly UAV's to determine every target, they should let Iraqis in on that observing as they can easily spot which are PMF and which are IS.
Iraqi air force & army aviation haven't caused friendly fire, they spot the difference between IS and PMF as they know their people and forces better. Unfortunately this all goes unpunished, some idiot decided that it was a target resulting in this.
Sheikh Nazhan Sakhr al-Lihaybi, the commander of the fighters who were killed, said they had succeeded in repelling an attack by Islamic State jihadists in the area, and were bombed when they gathered after the end of the fighting.
Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/afp/2016/10/iraq-conflict-qayyarah-strike-us.html#ixzz4MEH2vDv
Sad news, they have to find a solution to prevent it from happening. Whether embedding JTAC with the ISF or something else. They supposedly fly UAV's to determine every target, they should let Iraqis in on that observing as they can easily spot which are PMF and which are IS.
Iraqi air force & army aviation haven't caused friendly fire, they spot the difference between IS and PMF as they know their people and forces better. Unfortunately this all goes unpunished, some idiot decided that it was a target resulting in this.
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Vergennes
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Forced to fight for ISIS, the child soldiers of Iraq face a bleak future
Ash Gallagher for Yahoo News
October 7, 2016
DOHUK, Iraq — Sixteen-year-old Achmed sits in his tent with his shoulders slumped forward, as if he’s been carrying heavy weights.
He is a survivor. Achmed escaped last year from a military training camp run by the Islamic State for boys in Mosul. ISIS has made no secret that it is raising a new generation to fight for its cause, calling the boys the “Cubs of the Caliphate.”
Achmed’s story, which he told Yahoo News, is an example of the tragedy unfolding in areas of northern Iraq controlled by ISIS, where boys are coerced into becoming fighters and suicide bombers.
The battle for Mosul is expected to begin before the end of October. The United Nations anticipates the conflict could displace more than a million people, with at least 700,000 needing immediate assistance when the war starts. UNICEF estimates that as many as 100,000 children will be affected, and that many of the boys could be used as child soldiers on the frontline as decoys to shield ISIS positions.
What becomes of the boy soldiers after they have left the control of the armed group is often tragic.
—
Achmed was 14 when ISIS stormed into Sinjar province, a majority Yazidi region, in 2014, and he was captured along with his brother and several others in his family. The fighters demanded that everyone empty their pockets. Achmed was beaten on the back with a water hose until he gave up his cellphone.
The younger boys were separated from their parents. “They brought the buses and then they forced us to ride the buses, and we told them we were too young. They told us, ‘No, you have to go.’ Some of the kids refused and they beat them, and they told us, ‘We will kill you if you [don’t go].’”
From then on, Achmed said, he did as he was told, fearing for his life. “They forced us to memorize verses from the Quran, and whoever didn’t, got beaten,” he said. “Because I was scared, I memorized them.”
Screen grab of ISIS training via YouTube.
The ISIS fighters at the training camp tried to force the children to convert to their version of Islam. But Achmed, who was raised as a Yazidi, a minority faith ISIS regards as heretical, said he only went through the motions. His routine included daily prayers, physical training and weapons practice. “They would come and wake us up at 4 a.m., to pray the Islamic prayers. And then after that they would feed us breakfast — a piece of bread, cheese, maybe an egg. They trained us to use the M16, the AK47 and a pistol. They also showed us videos on how to behead people.”
Achmed said he never killed anyone, but while watching the videos, he said, “I was so scared, and I would often try to imagine myself being forced to do this, and I would tell myself, ‘I won’t do it.’”
After months of intense training, Achmed and his brother persuaded their trainers to let them leave for a weekend to see their aunt in a town west of Mosul. On that trip, they decided to escape. They waited until after sunset and headed west, traveling at night. It took them nearly nine days to meet up with their uncle, and then make their way to a camp for internally displaced persons, where they would join their mother and sister.
—
Achmed is one of the lucky ones; he made it to a camp and has never been questioned by Iraqi authorities. But those who are caught by Iraqi military or police are treated as enemy combatants, with little or no access to rehabilitation.
Hussein, believed to be around 13 years old, is one such boy. He was detained in August wearing a suicide vest in a market in Kirkuk province. His cousin had successfully detonated explosives near a mosque that same day and died, but police were able to intercept Hussein.
The Kirkuk police spokesperson, Col. Afrasiau Kaml, told Yahoo News, “We had information about this boy before. We knew he was coming. The father of the boy is [ISIS]; he is a leader of the group.”
Iraqi media filmed the boy’s arrest. Video showed him crying when he was caught, and he could be heard using an Arabic word for “uncle.” Iraqi media branded the boy a terrorist and headlined his capture in the following days.
Hussein’s whereabouts are unknown. Kirkuk police denied a request by Yahoo News to meet him. After several days of stonewalling, a senior police official said he would arrange for Yahoo News to meet another boy accused of spying for ISIS, but did not respond to follow-up calls.
Kaml said Hussein was still under investigation and in police custody, but did not say where, or in what kind of custody, whether a juvenile detention facility or an adult prison. “He’s not a criminal; he’s a terrorist,” Kaml insisted. “A criminal maybe would [have been] better, but a terrorist, [he’ll] be a terrorist forever.”
Nate Rabkin, a political analyst specializing in Iraq and managing editor of the publication Iraqi Politics, told Yahoo News, “The Iraqi criminal justice system — or at least their criminal investigation system — is very heavily interrogation-driven. The police don’t have the experience to go out to the scene and collect evidence.”
Screen grab from police video of Hussein’s arrest via Local Media/K24.
“There is a very vengeful mood in Iraq right now toward ISIS fighters,” Rabkin said. Because there is no “confidence in the courts,” he said, it’s not likely that boys arrested by Iraqi authorities will get an opportunity to deradicalize or be rehabilitated after their experience.
Boys like Hussein are supposed to be assigned a lawyer and go before a judge, but Kirkuk police would not confirm when or if that would actually happen.
—
The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is working toward a more lenient judicial system for children, in accordance with international law.
Jeffrey Bates, a communication director at UNICEF, said, “We have some small-scale projects for child soldiers — where they can come into a safe environment, where they have specific interventions to trail them through the legal system to ensure they’re given their rights as children.”
Bates explained that some religious authorities in Iraq agree in theory that there “shouldn’t be 13-year-olds on the battlefield,” but cannot enforce this position because it would be “going against a larger religious canon.” For many, the tradition is generally that manhood begins at puberty, along with the responsibility of taking up arms for the community.
Bates admitted his agency does not always have direct access to the children. By tribal custom, he said, “once a boy reaches puberty, he becomes an adult,” and being an adult carries certain privileges and responsibilities.
Nate Rabkin believes economics is a better explanation. In countries where “it’s common for children to be working at age 14, 15, 16, it’s hard to make the case that this 16-year-old who was captured along with ISIS is a child and should be treated as a misled child, rather than as an adult who’s responsible for [his] actions.”
He suggested that given “how weak the rule of law was in Iraq” even before the war with ISIS, “it would be difficult to put pressure on the Iraqi government to give different treatment for these kids on the ground.”
—
Screen grab from an ISIS training video via YouTube.
As hostilities approach Mosul, the question of what will happen to thousands of boys hangs in the balance. For those captured alive by authorities, their future looks bleak.
For boys like Hussein, deradicalization programs are highly unlikely because, as it stands, the Iraqi government isn’t considering handing over arrested “terrorists” to outside forces, even if they are children.
Achmed said he had seen a psychologist only once, given that sessions are not free and he would need money to continue. He said he also saw a Yazidi cleric, who simply gave him a blessing and sent him on his way.
“They [ISIS] are always in front of me when I sleep,” Achmed said, “so sometimes I am afraid to fall asleep. Everything was bad. It was all so bad.”
Achmed’s fear makes him angry, and he admits that he wants revenge. He said he wants to fight, and would go with any group willing to let him kill members of ISIS for what they did to him — and his family.
Ash Gallagher for Yahoo News
October 7, 2016
DOHUK, Iraq — Sixteen-year-old Achmed sits in his tent with his shoulders slumped forward, as if he’s been carrying heavy weights.
He is a survivor. Achmed escaped last year from a military training camp run by the Islamic State for boys in Mosul. ISIS has made no secret that it is raising a new generation to fight for its cause, calling the boys the “Cubs of the Caliphate.”
Achmed’s story, which he told Yahoo News, is an example of the tragedy unfolding in areas of northern Iraq controlled by ISIS, where boys are coerced into becoming fighters and suicide bombers.
The battle for Mosul is expected to begin before the end of October. The United Nations anticipates the conflict could displace more than a million people, with at least 700,000 needing immediate assistance when the war starts. UNICEF estimates that as many as 100,000 children will be affected, and that many of the boys could be used as child soldiers on the frontline as decoys to shield ISIS positions.
What becomes of the boy soldiers after they have left the control of the armed group is often tragic.
—
Achmed was 14 when ISIS stormed into Sinjar province, a majority Yazidi region, in 2014, and he was captured along with his brother and several others in his family. The fighters demanded that everyone empty their pockets. Achmed was beaten on the back with a water hose until he gave up his cellphone.
The younger boys were separated from their parents. “They brought the buses and then they forced us to ride the buses, and we told them we were too young. They told us, ‘No, you have to go.’ Some of the kids refused and they beat them, and they told us, ‘We will kill you if you [don’t go].’”
From then on, Achmed said, he did as he was told, fearing for his life. “They forced us to memorize verses from the Quran, and whoever didn’t, got beaten,” he said. “Because I was scared, I memorized them.”
Screen grab of ISIS training via YouTube.
The ISIS fighters at the training camp tried to force the children to convert to their version of Islam. But Achmed, who was raised as a Yazidi, a minority faith ISIS regards as heretical, said he only went through the motions. His routine included daily prayers, physical training and weapons practice. “They would come and wake us up at 4 a.m., to pray the Islamic prayers. And then after that they would feed us breakfast — a piece of bread, cheese, maybe an egg. They trained us to use the M16, the AK47 and a pistol. They also showed us videos on how to behead people.”
Achmed said he never killed anyone, but while watching the videos, he said, “I was so scared, and I would often try to imagine myself being forced to do this, and I would tell myself, ‘I won’t do it.’”
After months of intense training, Achmed and his brother persuaded their trainers to let them leave for a weekend to see their aunt in a town west of Mosul. On that trip, they decided to escape. They waited until after sunset and headed west, traveling at night. It took them nearly nine days to meet up with their uncle, and then make their way to a camp for internally displaced persons, where they would join their mother and sister.
—
Achmed is one of the lucky ones; he made it to a camp and has never been questioned by Iraqi authorities. But those who are caught by Iraqi military or police are treated as enemy combatants, with little or no access to rehabilitation.
Hussein, believed to be around 13 years old, is one such boy. He was detained in August wearing a suicide vest in a market in Kirkuk province. His cousin had successfully detonated explosives near a mosque that same day and died, but police were able to intercept Hussein.
The Kirkuk police spokesperson, Col. Afrasiau Kaml, told Yahoo News, “We had information about this boy before. We knew he was coming. The father of the boy is [ISIS]; he is a leader of the group.”
Iraqi media filmed the boy’s arrest. Video showed him crying when he was caught, and he could be heard using an Arabic word for “uncle.” Iraqi media branded the boy a terrorist and headlined his capture in the following days.
Hussein’s whereabouts are unknown. Kirkuk police denied a request by Yahoo News to meet him. After several days of stonewalling, a senior police official said he would arrange for Yahoo News to meet another boy accused of spying for ISIS, but did not respond to follow-up calls.
Kaml said Hussein was still under investigation and in police custody, but did not say where, or in what kind of custody, whether a juvenile detention facility or an adult prison. “He’s not a criminal; he’s a terrorist,” Kaml insisted. “A criminal maybe would [have been] better, but a terrorist, [he’ll] be a terrorist forever.”
Nate Rabkin, a political analyst specializing in Iraq and managing editor of the publication Iraqi Politics, told Yahoo News, “The Iraqi criminal justice system — or at least their criminal investigation system — is very heavily interrogation-driven. The police don’t have the experience to go out to the scene and collect evidence.”
Screen grab from police video of Hussein’s arrest via Local Media/K24.
“There is a very vengeful mood in Iraq right now toward ISIS fighters,” Rabkin said. Because there is no “confidence in the courts,” he said, it’s not likely that boys arrested by Iraqi authorities will get an opportunity to deradicalize or be rehabilitated after their experience.
Boys like Hussein are supposed to be assigned a lawyer and go before a judge, but Kirkuk police would not confirm when or if that would actually happen.
—
The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is working toward a more lenient judicial system for children, in accordance with international law.
Jeffrey Bates, a communication director at UNICEF, said, “We have some small-scale projects for child soldiers — where they can come into a safe environment, where they have specific interventions to trail them through the legal system to ensure they’re given their rights as children.”
Bates explained that some religious authorities in Iraq agree in theory that there “shouldn’t be 13-year-olds on the battlefield,” but cannot enforce this position because it would be “going against a larger religious canon.” For many, the tradition is generally that manhood begins at puberty, along with the responsibility of taking up arms for the community.
Bates admitted his agency does not always have direct access to the children. By tribal custom, he said, “once a boy reaches puberty, he becomes an adult,” and being an adult carries certain privileges and responsibilities.
Nate Rabkin believes economics is a better explanation. In countries where “it’s common for children to be working at age 14, 15, 16, it’s hard to make the case that this 16-year-old who was captured along with ISIS is a child and should be treated as a misled child, rather than as an adult who’s responsible for [his] actions.”
He suggested that given “how weak the rule of law was in Iraq” even before the war with ISIS, “it would be difficult to put pressure on the Iraqi government to give different treatment for these kids on the ground.”
—
Screen grab from an ISIS training video via YouTube.
As hostilities approach Mosul, the question of what will happen to thousands of boys hangs in the balance. For those captured alive by authorities, their future looks bleak.
For boys like Hussein, deradicalization programs are highly unlikely because, as it stands, the Iraqi government isn’t considering handing over arrested “terrorists” to outside forces, even if they are children.
Achmed said he had seen a psychologist only once, given that sessions are not free and he would need money to continue. He said he also saw a Yazidi cleric, who simply gave him a blessing and sent him on his way.
“They [ISIS] are always in front of me when I sleep,” Achmed said, “so sometimes I am afraid to fall asleep. Everything was bad. It was all so bad.”
Achmed’s fear makes him angry, and he admits that he wants revenge. He said he wants to fight, and would go with any group willing to let him kill members of ISIS for what they did to him — and his family.
Hurshid Celebi
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There are rumors that the operation to liberate Mosul will start 23.10.2016. Latest intelligence reports claim that only 4000 DAESH terrorists are still in Mosul. They prepared thousands of IEDs and mine traps, tunnels and sniper locations.
Almost 3500 DAESH terrorists left Mosul and traveled with buses and pickups to Rakka in Syria.
Astonishing is that PKK and YPG terrorists together with the USA allowed them free passage.
That confirms Turkish sources who claim that there is a secret agreement between PKK/YPG and DAESH.
Key factor of operation Mosul will be how Turkish Forces will react, against a possible PKK aggression against Turkmens and Sunni Arabs in Tel-Afar.
Turkey has 18 bases in Nothern Iraq and eliminated up to now more than 800 DAESH terrorists.
Some information about Turkish bases in Northern Iraq
https://citeam.org/turkish-bases-in-northern-iraq/
"The independent Awene weekly in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region has reported that there are 18 military and intelligence bases in Dohuk province in the Iraqi autonomous region of Kurdistan.
According to the report a source in Turkey has told the daily that there are 18 military and intelligence bases in Iraqi Kurdistan that belong to Turkish army and the intelligence organization of MIT in Duhok and Badinan regions in the Kurdish region.
The report has added that there are at least 500 Turkish soldiers and officers with advanced heavy arms and ammunitions and spy tools in the 18 bases and they are busy conducting intelligence and military operations.
There are reportedly 800 Turkish troops deployed in the Mosul and Shaqlawa regions, the move that sparked a crisis between Ankara and Baghdad. Turkey sent a contingent of an additional 150 forces in December 2015 to bolster its military presence in the Bashiqa camp, an area that has seen recent fighting."
Turkey will participate in Operation Mosul !
If not we have Plan B and Plan C.
TURKISH PRESIDENT announced just now.
http://m.haberturk.com/gundem/haber...an-musulda-koalisyonda-yer-almakta-kararliyiz
Almost 3500 DAESH terrorists left Mosul and traveled with buses and pickups to Rakka in Syria.
Astonishing is that PKK and YPG terrorists together with the USA allowed them free passage.
That confirms Turkish sources who claim that there is a secret agreement between PKK/YPG and DAESH.
Key factor of operation Mosul will be how Turkish Forces will react, against a possible PKK aggression against Turkmens and Sunni Arabs in Tel-Afar.
Turkey has 18 bases in Nothern Iraq and eliminated up to now more than 800 DAESH terrorists.
Some information about Turkish bases in Northern Iraq
https://citeam.org/turkish-bases-in-northern-iraq/
"The independent Awene weekly in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region has reported that there are 18 military and intelligence bases in Dohuk province in the Iraqi autonomous region of Kurdistan.
According to the report a source in Turkey has told the daily that there are 18 military and intelligence bases in Iraqi Kurdistan that belong to Turkish army and the intelligence organization of MIT in Duhok and Badinan regions in the Kurdish region.
The report has added that there are at least 500 Turkish soldiers and officers with advanced heavy arms and ammunitions and spy tools in the 18 bases and they are busy conducting intelligence and military operations.
There are reportedly 800 Turkish troops deployed in the Mosul and Shaqlawa regions, the move that sparked a crisis between Ankara and Baghdad. Turkey sent a contingent of an additional 150 forces in December 2015 to bolster its military presence in the Bashiqa camp, an area that has seen recent fighting."
Turkey will participate in Operation Mosul !
If not we have Plan B and Plan C.
TURKISH PRESIDENT announced just now.
http://m.haberturk.com/gundem/haber...an-musulda-koalisyonda-yer-almakta-kararliyiz
Last edited:
Hurshid Celebi
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Oh what happened ?
60 DAESH (IS) terrorists were executed in Mosul from DAESH.
DAESH (IS) announced that they caught a message and think that the executed people are "infiltrators" (PKK/YPG)
in job for the USA.
Seems that there is DAESH 1 and DAESH 2 ( USA) and Al- Nusra ( USA backed);
and that Russia and Turkey are aware about the coward plans to massacre Syria and Iraq !
Serpentine
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Falcon29
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Haymi Behar@HaymiBehar
Seems like #Obama expedited #Mosul operation to remove the #ISIS card from #Trump's hand.
1:39 PM - 15 Oct 2016
..........
Charles ListerVerified account@Charles_Lister
#Mosul Operation vs. #ISIS begins... Heavy US-directed artillery now striking targets in the city's east & west. Huge tests ahead.
.......
Seems like #Obama expedited #Mosul operation to remove the #ISIS card from #Trump's hand.
1:39 PM - 15 Oct 2016
..........
Charles ListerVerified account@Charles_Lister
#Mosul Operation vs. #ISIS begins... Heavy US-directed artillery now striking targets in the city's east & west. Huge tests ahead.
.......
Hindustani78
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http://www.arabnews.com/node/998431/middle-east
KHAZER, Iraq: A few hundred Iraqi special forces arrived Friday at the front line near militant-held Mosul, one small part of a series of troop movements that have massed thousands of soldiers ahead of an operation seeking to retake the country’s second-largest city from the Daesh group.
“Yesterday, our commander told us: This is it, the liberation of Mosul is beginning,” a special forces sergeant said, preferring anonymity.
Officials from Iraq and the US-led coalition have said preparations and planning of the operation are ongoing, but there is widespread speculation it will be launched this month.
The Iraqi troops are camped in a field across the Great Zab River separating Nineveh province from Iraq’s Kurdistan region. Nearby, other members of their unit were moving into an abandoned village, converting homes into a barracks for temporary camp.
The large volume of forces needed for the Mosul fight — Iraqi and coalition officials say at least 30,000 will take part — has overcrowded the few bases that Iraq’s military has along the Mosul front line.
The sergeant said his unit traveled in a convoy from Tikrit to the front near the district of Khazer, on the edges of the Nineveh plain about 30 km from Mosul. Along the way, he saw thousands more Iraqi soldiers being deployed, he said.
“We are here for the Mosul battle, and we won’t return home until we finish it,” he added.
Qayara air base south of Mosul is expected to be the main hub of operations, but Iraqi army convoys, including a unit of the elite special forces, could also be seen moving to front-line positions east of the city.
The coalition said Friday it also is conducting a larger number of airstrikes in the area, launching more than 50 in and around Mosul over the past two weeks.
Mosul, once home to more than 2 million people, fell to Daesh more than two years ago. The operation to retake it is expected to be the most complex yet for Iraq’s military.
In addition to Iraq’s conventional military, other participants expected to participate in the battle are Shiite militias, Kurdish forces known as the peshmerga, Sunni tribal fighters and federal police forces.
“We would like to tell (civilians in Mosul) we are coming very soon, God willing,” said Ahmed Hussein, a special forces solider who was perched on the hood of a black armored Humvee.
“My advice to (the Daesh militants) is to run away. It’s better for them to run,” he said, predicting the fight will only last a few days.
Mosul is the last urban area in Iraq under militant control. Since Daesh overran large parts of northern and western Iraq in the summer of 2014 for the group’s self-proclaimed caliphate, Iraqi ground forces, backed closely by the coalition, have retaken more than half of the territory.
The gains have been shaky at times. A group of soldiers now on the Mosul front line joked that they liberated the Beiji oil refinery in central Iraq at least five times before it held. In recent battles south of Mosul, the Daesh fighters largely fled and launched only limited, small-scale counterattacks.
Over the past week, coalition and Iraqi officials said they have seen small numbers of Daesh fighters fleeing Mosul into neighboring Syria. It’s still unclear, however, if the militants will put up a strong fight for the city.
Inside Mosul, residents report that prices for food and fuel have spiked amid speculation that an offensive is imminent.
As Iraqi forces have moved to isolate Mosul, residents who spoke to the AP by phone say Daesh fighters have begun reinforcing trenches around the city and setting booby-trapped explosives along main thoroughfares.
From a Kurdish Peshmerga base atop a hill along the front line, Lt. Col. Mohhesin Hassan said he’s watched the steady buildup of Iraqi ground forces over the past week.
“It’s been more than two years since we’ve seen Iraqi forces in this area like this,” he said. “But, whenever the battle begins, we hope it will be over quickly. We’re tired of fighting.”
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that Iraq could not deal alone with driving Daesh from Mosul and that the presence of Turkish forces in a nearby military camp was an insurance against attacks on Turkey.
Turkey has been locked in a fierce row with Iraq’s central government over the presence of Turkish troops at the Bashiqa camp in northern Iraq, and over who should take part in the planned US-backed assault on Mosul.
Speaking at a ceremony in the Black Sea town of Rize, Erdogan said Turkey would not allow Daesh or any other organization to control Mosul. He also said Turkish-backed rebels in neighboring Syria were advancing on the Daesh-held village of Dabiq in the country’s northwest.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/us...osul.aspx?pageID=238&nID=105004&NewsCatID=352
The U.S. military deployed to the east of Iraq’s Mosul has started shelling Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) targets as part of an operation to retake the city, a Peshmerga commander said on Oct. 15, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.
Peshmerga Commander Omer Huseyin told the agency that American howitzers, deployed some 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) away from Mosul city center, were hitting ISIL targets.
Huseyin said the U.S.-led coalition warplanes also hit areas where ISIL militants were positioned.
"The Daesh [ISIL] terrorists started burning tires to block the view of the warplanes after international coalition forces struck the area," he added.
"Daesh terrorists also started burning the petroleum filled in their ditches, which they have dug around the city."
Meanwhile, earlier reports had suggested that the grand operation to retake Mosul from ISIL begun late on Oct. 15.
Both Pentagon and the U.S. Central Command stated such operation had not begun yet, as reported by the Anadolu Agency.
In addition, Turkish Prime Ministry sources also said there was no Turkish military presence in the operation yet, private broadcaster CNN Türk reported.
According to sources, Ankara also warned Washington of Shia forces to not to enter the region, saying that it would trigger a sectarian war which would last for hundred years.
The U.S. and French jets were also bombing ISIL targets in the east of Mosul, according to private broadcaster NTV.
The attacks late on Oct. 15 were steps to increase military build-up and narrow the circle down ahead of a ground offensive, the channel said quoting security sources.
In mid-2014, ISIL captured the northern city of Mosul and overran vast swathes of territory in northern and western Iraq. It remains in control of several parts of the country, including Mosul.
The Iraqi army and its allies are now gradually advancing on Mosul, which officials in Baghdad have vowed to "liberate" by year’s end.
October/15/2016
Alshawi1234
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PMF Is officially taking part in the offensive. The along with the federal police will take on the southern front from qayarra. And eventually to Mosul and then east towards Tel Afar.
The battle of Hawijah might also be conducted at the same time. Led mainly by the PMF.
ISOF led by Abdulwahab alsaedi, he spearheaded the attack on Falujah and Baiji, his forces are the most experienced and took part in nearly every battle. They will take on the northern and eastern front, and they will be the main forces to enter Mosul along side the army.
Peshmerga will assist the Iraqi forces in the northern and eastern front. But they will not enter Mosul.
An iraqi army head towards foreward positions.
PMF and ISF heading towards the southern front.
The battle of Hawijah might also be conducted at the same time. Led mainly by the PMF.
ISOF led by Abdulwahab alsaedi, he spearheaded the attack on Falujah and Baiji, his forces are the most experienced and took part in nearly every battle. They will take on the northern and eastern front, and they will be the main forces to enter Mosul along side the army.
Peshmerga will assist the Iraqi forces in the northern and eastern front. But they will not enter Mosul.
An iraqi army head towards foreward positions.
PMF and ISF heading towards the southern front.
pak-marine
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Good luck to Iraqi Army with Daesh (Isis) may u get rid of sectarianism forever and become Iraq for iraqis
Alshawi1234
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More forces massing for the battle.
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