IRAQI SPECIAL FORCES SUFFER HEAVY DEFEAT IN SOUTHEASTERN MOSUL – PHOTO REPORT
“There’s a reason why in war the US Army and Marines prefer to rely on their own aviation rather then call in the US Air Force for air support. The US Air Force, the most dangerous enemy of US ground troops and friendly forces.”
Barba_Papa, SF reader
The Iraqi Special Forces have suffered heavy losses in the south-east of Mosul city due to attacks of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group and airstrikes of the US-led coalition.
Destroyed military hardware of an assault team of the Iraqi Army in the area of the Mashfa al-Salam hospital in the south-east of Mosul
Over the past few days, the Iraqi Army took control of several districts in the east and north of Mosul. After a series of airstrikes of the
US-led coalition, the Iraqi Special Forces managed to capture the large neighborhood of Intisar, located in the south-eastern outskirts of the city. A highway, leading from Mosul to Kirkuk, allows to reach the city center from the place, and Iraqi military decided to use this chance.
On December 5, the Special Forces of anti-terrorist units and the so-called Golden Division began to move along the road, leading from Mosul to Kirkuk, through the neighborhoods of Mithaq and Wahda in the direction of the city center. On December 6, Iraqi troops made a breakthrough and dislodged terrorists of the
Islamic State (IS) group from the Mashfa al-Salam hospital; however, militants did not allow Iraqi soldiers to consolidate their positions there.
Click to see the full-size map (Photo: twitter.com / tutomap)
In the afternoon, at least five suicide bombers of the IS group attacked positions of the
Iraqi Special Forces, using bomb-laden vehicles. According to government sources, one of them did not reach his target, while others blew up very close to the Iraqi positions. According to the IS, all the bomb-laden vehicles reached positions of the Iraqi Army.
Immediately after the first explosion, a hard battle for the hospital erupted. Iraqi military called on the US-led coalition to provide air support, but fighter jets of the coalition mistakenly bombed buildings of the hospital, where Iraqi troops still were stationed. All in all, two series of airstrikes were carried out.
As a result of the attacks of the IS suicide bombers and ‘friendly airstrikes’ of the coalition’s air power, the Iraqi Army suffered heavy losses, which were called ‘catastrophic’ by local accounts in social networks. According to various sources, from 90 to 200
Iraqi servicemen were killed, while more than 100 others were wounded. Several soldiers, who survived after the airstrikes on the hospital, were captured by terrorists. Up to 10 pieces of military hardware, mainly infantry combat vehicles and the Humvee vehicles, were destroyed by explosions. In fact, an assault team of the Iraqi Army, which broke through to the Mashfa al-Salam hospital, was liquidated during several hours. Its remnants were sent to Intisar neighborhood.
The post is based on the info provided by WarsOnline. More photos:
Destroyed military hardware of an assault team of the Iraqi Army in the area of the Mashfa al-Salam hospital in the south-east of Mosul
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us-led coalition in iraq
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https://southfront.org/iraqi-special-forces-suffer-heavy-defeat-in-southeastern-mosul/
