http://www.arabnews.com/node/1112546/middle-east
MOSUL, IRAQ: Three years after the Daesh group routed them in Mosul, Iraqi forces are now on the cusp of retaking the city from the jihadists and avenging a historic debacle.
The fall of Mosul was the worst defeat that Iraqi forces suffered in the war with Daesh, and regaining it would cap a major turnaround for security forces that broke and ran despite outnumbering the jihadists who attacked the second city in 2014.
“Of course, we celebrate the successes of the military” three years after the city’s fall, said Staff Lt. Gen. Abdulghani Assadi, a senior commander in Iraq’s elite Counter-Terrorism Service, which has spearheaded the battle.
When Daesh seized Mosul on June 10, 2014 and drove south toward the federal capital, the atmosphere was not one of celebration, but rather fear.
“Three years ago, around this time, Daesh... was moving rapidly toward Baghdad,” said Brett McGurk, the US envoy to the international coalition against Daesh, using an Arabic acronym for the jihadist group.
“Mosul fell, seven divisions of the Iraqi security forces simply disintegrated,” he said.
Iraqi forces “were not prepared for a threat like that” posed by IS in 2014, said coalition spokesman Col. Ryan Dillon.
Daesh “was knocking on the doors of Baghdad.”
At that time, recovery “looked almost impossible, and many were saying, ‘Well, this is the end of Iraq’,” McGurk said.
A combination of factors ultimately stopped the jihadists short of Baghdad, and they were not able to launch a large-scale conventional attack on the capital.
Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, the country’s top Shiite cleric, called for volunteers to battle Daesh, and pre-existing Iran-backed Shiite militias fought under that banner to first halt the jihadists and then slowly push them back, while new volunteer units were also established.
The United States meanwhile launched an air campaign against Daesh in Iraq about two months after Mosul’s fall, which became an international coalition effort also involving training and other support for Iraqi forces.
The Iraqi security forces have since recaptured much of the territory seized by Daesh, including three cities, and have retaken most of Mosul, the fourth and largest.
In Mosul, “nothing remains for Daesh except three or four neighborhoods in which it is surrounded,” Assadi said.
When Daesh seized Mosul, “the units that were present were in fact lacking some preparations and some equipment... and therefore the fall (of the city) happened quickly,” he said.
“Now the units are well prepared and their relationship with the citizen — and this is a very important point — is a good relationship and the citizen cooperates with the units,” Assadi said.
“Success in the Mosul operation will highlight how far the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) have come since their collapse in June 2014,” said Patrick Martin, Iraq analyst at the Institute for the Study of War.
But Martin noted that “recapturing terrain in Mosul should not obscure the fact that the ISF remains incomplete and flawed,” including that “they still have insufficient manpower to clear and hold the country.”
Pushing the jihadists back has taken a massive toll on Iraq: years of battles have left thousands dead and hundreds of thousands displaced, and laid waste to swathes of the country, while many suffered under brutal jihadist rule.
“Nineveh province in general and Mosul specifically passed through a major tragedy,” said Staff Lt. Gen. Abdulwahab Al-Saadi, another senior Counter-Terrorism Service commander.
Civilians suffered through massacres and rapes, while a “very big price (was) paid by all the units” that fought, Saadi said.
The recapture of Mosul will also not mark the end of the war against Daesh in Iraq, as the jihadists will still control territory in Kirkuk province further south as well as in the west.
And then there is the “future threat,” Dillon said, that Daesh “will devolve back into an insurgency again.”
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http://www.arabnews.com/node/1112606/middle-east
Beirut: US-backed Syrian fighters Friday seized part of a district on the western edge of the Daesh group’s Raqqa bastion and battled to advance inside the city’s east, a monitor said.
The Kurdish-Arab alliance known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) broke into Raqqa city for the first time earlier this week, months after they launched an operation to capture the jihadist stronghold.
They are backed by the US-led coalition which carried out heavy air strikes on Raqqa and its surroundings overnight and into Friday.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said SDF fighters took parts of the suburb of Jazra just west of Raqqa’s city limits on Friday.
The monitor said heavy clashes were continuing in other parts of the neighborhood, where at least 15 civilians were killed on Thursday night in the air strikes that hit an Internet cafe.
The casualties in Jazra were among 23 civilians killed in over two dozen US-led coalition strikes on and near Raqqa on Thursday night, the Observatory said.
SDF spokesman Talal Sello said fighters were advancing on several fronts on Friday.
“The SDF has control of Al-Meshleb district (inside eastern Raqqa) and is clearing it of mines and explosives at the moment,” he told AFP.
He said SDF forces had also advanced on the northern front outside the city.
Al-Meshleb was the first neighborhood in Raqqa city entered by SDF fighters.
They are expected to progress from the district into neighboring Al-Senaa, and the Observatory said some of the overnight strikes targeted area between the two districts.
Daesh fighters have been fighting back against the advancing forces with snipers as well as drones armed with explosives, according to the SDF.
They have also reportedly dug defensive trenches and tunnels to try to slow the SDF advance.
“Hundreds” of US military personnel are taking part in the Raqqa offensive, according to the Pentagon, which said Thursday it believed up to 2,500 Daesh fighters were still holed up in Raqqa.
Captured by the jihadists in 2014, Raqqa has become synonymous with Daesh atrocities including beheadings and public displays of bodies, and also emerged as a hub for planning attacks abroad.
An estimated 300,000 civilians were believed to have been living under Daesh rule in Raqqa, including 80,000 displaced from other parts of Syria.
But thousands have fled in recent months, and the UN humanitarian office estimates about 160,000 people remain in the city.
The UN children’s agency UNICEF warned Friday that “an estimated 40,000 children remain trapped in dangerous conditions in Raqqa city.”
“Many are caught in the crossfire,” said UNICEF regional director Geert Cappelaere.
“Children are deprived of the most basic and life-saving necessities,” he added, urging safe passage for those who want to leave the city.
Tens of thousands of people have fled Raqqa and the surrounding area since the SDF launched its Operation Wrath of the Euphrates to capture the Daesh bastion last November.
Many have described harrowing journeys as they fled Raqqa city, with Daesh fighters targeting them as they tried to escape.
Elsewhere in Syria, a US warplane shot down a pro-regime drone on Thursday night near the Jordanian border in the latest incident in escalating tensions in the country’s south.
The US-led coalition said the drone was downed after it fired at coalition forces near the Al-Tanaf garrison, where anti-Daesh Syrian rebels are being trained.
The shooting down came after another incident earlier Thursday in which coalition forces struck “technical vehicles” advancing toward Al-Tanaf.
It was the third time the coalition has struck pro-regime forces near Al-Tanaf in less than a month.
Syria’s government is eager to deploy forces in the area and head off any dispatch of foreign-trained Syrian rebels to fight Daesh in the country’s eastern Deir Ezzor province.
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By Ali Jawad and Hussein al-Amir
NINEVEH, Iraq
http://aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/attacks-kill-4-troops-scores-of-militants-in-n-iraq/838761
Four Iraqi soldiers and allied fighters were killed in a Daesh attack in northern Iraq on Saturday, according to a local military officer.
Scores of Daesh militants mounted a deadly attack on the villages of Hawrya and al-Khadranya in Shirqat district of Saladin province, triggering clashes with Iraqi forces, army lieutenant Hajem al-Saedi told Anadolu Agency.
He said the attack left four soldiers and pro-government fighters dead and eight others injured.
At least 14 militants were also killed in the attack, according to al-Saedi.
In another development, at least 16 Daesh militants were killed in fighting with pro-government Hashd al-Shaabi fighters east of Baiji city in northern Iraq.
He said casualties were also reported among members of the Hashd al-Shaabi fighters.
Iraqi forces, backed by air cover from a U.S.-led coalition, are currently engaged in a wide-scale offensive aimed at dislodging Daesh from Mosul, the terrorist group's last stronghold in northern Iraq.
http://aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/shia-militia-to-administer-iraq-border-areas-with-syria/838785
The pro-government Hashd al-Shaabi militia will administer Iraq's border areas with Syria, according to an Iraqi military officer.
"The Hashd al-Shaabi forces have completed their operations in western Mosul after recapturing all villages near border with Syria," army captain Jabbar Hasan told Anadolu Agency on Saturday.
"The forces will remain in control of these areas until they hand them over to the army and police forces," he said.
As for a planned operation to oust Daesh terrorist group from Tal Afar, west of Mosul, Hasan said the offensive will be launched "after all districts in western Mosul are recaptured".
"The decision not to involve the Hashd al-Shaabi forces in the battle is still in place," he said.
Incorporated into the Iraqi armed forces late last year, the Hashd al-Shaabi is a largely Shia fighting force drawn up in 2014 to fight the Daesh terrorist group.
Iraqi forces, backed by air cover from a U.S.-led coalition, are currently engaged in a widespread offensive to dislodge Daesh from Mosul, the terrorist group’s last stronghold in Iraq.