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ISOF battalion that will take Al-Qaim city


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http://aa.com.tr/en/middle-east

Iraqi federal forces have taken 40 oil wells from Kurdish Peshmerga forces in recent military operations in the northern Nineveh province, an Iraqi army officer said Saturday.

"Iraqi joint forces have managed to assert control over 40 out of 44 oil wells in recent military operations in the Zummar district of Tal Afar [west of provincial capital Mosul],” Army Major Hammam al-Abdali told Anadolu Agency.

"The central government has sent engineering crews specialized in operating oil wells to the area in order to maintain oil extraction without interruption," he said.

"Iraqi forces are also providing protection for engineering crews so the latter can carry out their responsibilities without encountering difficulties," he added.

Tension has steadily mounted between Baghdad and the Erbil-based Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) since Sept. 25, when Iraqis in KRG-held areas -- and in several disputed parts of the country -- voted on whether or not to declare independence from the Iraqi state.

According to poll results announced by the KRG, almost 93 percent of registered voters cast ballots in favor of independence.

The unconstitutional referendum was heavily criticized by most regional and international actors, with many warning it would distract from Iraq’s ongoing fight against terrorism and further destabilize the region.

Over the course of the last two weeks, Iraqi government forces have moved into several parts of the country disputed between Baghdad and Erbil, including the oil-rich Kirkuk province.

The military deployments have led to several violent confrontations between Iraqi forces and Kurdish Peshmerga forces, with limited casualties reported on both sides.

Reporting by Ahmed Qassem; Writing by Mahmoud Barakat

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Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Friday ordered Iraqi government forces to suspend all military activities in parts of the country disputed between Baghdad and the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) for a 24-hour period.

According to a statement issued by al-Abadi’s office, the decision was taken with a view to “preventing further bloodshed between the people of a single nation”.

Tension has steadily mounted between Baghdad and the Erbil-based KRG since Sept. 25, when Iraqis in KRG-held areas -- and in several disputed parts of the country -- voted on whether or not to declare independence from the Iraqi state.

According to poll results announced by the KRG, almost 93 percent of registered voters cast ballots in favor of independence.

The unconstitutional referendum was heavily criticized by most regional and international actors, with many warning it would distract from Iraq’s ongoing fight against terrorism and further destabilize the region.

Over the course of the last 10 days, Iraqi government forces have moved into several parts of the country disputed between Baghdad and Erbil, including the oil-rich Kirkuk province.

The military deployments have led to several violent confrontations between Iraqi forces and Kurdish Peshmerga forces, with limited casualties reported on both sides.

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Iraqi forces have discovered a mass grave -- which appears to contain the remains of slain army and police personnel -- in the northern Kirkuk province, the Iraqi Defense Ministry said Saturday.

"A mass grave was discovered that appears to contain the remains of some 50 army and police personnel killed by Daesh terrorists in the village of Al-Bakara in Kirkuk’s Hawija district," the ministry said in a statement.

“The grave will be excavated -- and the remains examined -- in accordance with proper legal procedures,” it added.

Earlier this year, army sources said security forces had stumbled upon two mass graves containing the remains of dozens of members of the Iraqi army and police who had been killed by Daesh in Hawija.

On Oct. 8, Iraqi forces announced the recapture of Hawija, which had been one of the terrorist group's last remaining strongholds in the country.

Hamed al-Obaidi, a Kirkuk police captain, told Anadolu Agency that security forces had been tasked with investigating mass graves found in the district.

According to al-Obaidi, the fate of “dozens” of Iraqi military personnel had remained unknown since mid-2014, when Daesh overran vast territories in both Iraq and Syria.

In recent months, however, Daesh has suffered a string of major defeats at the hands of the Iraqi military and a U.S.-led coalition.

In August, the group lost Tal Afar in Iraq’s northern Nineveh province. And one month earlier, the city of Mosul -- once the capital of Daesh’s self-proclaimed “caliphate” -- fell to the army after a nine-month siege.

Reporting by Hussein al-Amir; Writing by Mahmoud Barakat

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http://aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/iraqi-army-urges-daesh-to-surrender/950819

The Iraqi army has called on Daesh militants to surrender amid an ongoing military operation to dislodge the terrorist group from their last stronghold in the western Anbar province.

Iraqi planes dropped thousands of leaflets on Daesh-held areas in Anbar, calling on the militants to lay down their arms and surrender to the Iraqi forces, the Defense Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

On Thursday, the Iraqi army began a wide-scale military campaign to liberate Anbar province's Rawa an al-Qaim towns, the group’s last enclaves in Iraq.

Brigadier-General Yahya Rasul, spokesman for the Iraqi army’s Joint Operations Command (JOC), earlier said Iraqi forces had killed 75 Daesh militants during operations in Anbar in the last 72 hours.

Meanwhile, Abu Ali al-Kufi, a commander of the pro-government Hashd al-Shaabi militia, said Daesh had planted booby-traps and explosive devices on roads and crossings to al-Qaim.

He said bomb disposal teams have managed to defuse the explosives and make safe routes for the forces.

“Our forces are waiting for the zero hour to attack on terrorists in their last hideouts,” he said.

Last month, Iraqi security and tribal forces captured Anah town in Anbar from Daesh while the terrorist group has been controlling Rawa and al-Qaim since mid-2014.
 
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Secretary-General of the Iraqi Badr Organization Hadi al-Ameri: it was people of Iraq and Iran's support ended the terrorism in Iraq
 
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http://saudigazette.com.sa/article/...aesh-bastion-Iraqis-hail-end-of-militant-rule



Iraqi forces and members of the Hashed Al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization units) advance toward the city of Al-Qaim, in Iraq's western Anbar province near the Syrian border as they fight against remnant pockets of Daesh (the so-called IS) militants on Friday. — AFP

By Sleimane Al-Kobeissi

FOR Abu Ahmed, the arrival of Iraqi forces in his village on the border with Syria has ended a three-year ordeal at the hands of Daesh (the so-called IS) group that might never have been.

He was only meant to be visiting when he returned to the tiny settlement of Al-Obeidi in western Iraq for his mother's funeral in September 2014.

But two days later the militants swept in, trapping him for years under their brutal rule and far from his home in the capital Baghdad.

That all ended this week when government troops pushing a final offensive against Daesh in Iraq seized Al-Obeidi as they closed in on the largest remaining jihadist-controlled town of Al-Qaim just to the west.

"Thank God, the Iraqi forces have liberated us," he told AFP, refusing to give his real name as "the fear" still remains even though the Daesh fighters might be gone.

After absorbing the village into their self-styled caliphate back in September 2014, the militants "behaved badly toward the people," the man in his 60s said.

In the past few years Iraqi troops have been battling to retake the swathes of territory that Daesh captured when they stormed through the country in 2014.

In brutal fighting Baghdad has ousted IS from one city after another as they systematically dismantled the group's experiment in statehood with the help of air strikes from a US-led coalition.

Now, all that remains of their territory in Iraq is Al-Qaim and the area around in a pocket of barren desert along the Euphrates river near the border with Syria.

Since launching the final offensive to retake the region last week Iraqi troops backed up by local Sunni fighters have captured "over 30 villages and advanced more than 90 km," commander Qassem Al-Mohammedi told AFP.

His men have quickly painted over the Daesh flag that was daubed across an arch at the entrance to Al-Obeidi.

A little further along buildings show the scars of fighting. A row of shops is now only a pile of rubble.

When the fighting started Umm Mohammed thought only of one thing: escaping.

The militants "deprived us of everything. There were people who were ill and died in their homes because they refused to let them be moved," says the woman who also refused to give her full name.

A young girl by her side says she wants to go back to school "now that we are finished with Daesh".

"Without school we forgot everything that we learnt," she said.

Several hundred meters away a sign next to the asphalt road that cuts through the desert points to Al-Qaim 12 km away and Syria further on.

Across the frontier Daesh is also battling for survival as rival offensives backed by the US and Russia eat into its territory.

The Iraqi troops are now focused on Al-Qaim as they look to "force Daesh out" of their country, said general Noman Al-Zoabi, as he advances through the desert with a convoy of armored vehicles.

Ahead of him lie plenty more obstacles: the road is studded with improvised explosive devices set to explode as his forces advance.

And even in the areas that the troops have "liberated" the threat is still ever present.

Behind on the road near Al-Obeidi smouldered the charred carcass of an Iraqi armoured vehicle that had just been blown up by a roadside bomb. — AFP
 
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There's still some areas in the north held by kdp that must be taken, I believe Dohuk should be taken.
 
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http://aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/3-iraqi-soldiers-killed-in-mosul/957030
3 Iraqi soldiers killed in Mosul


Gunmen attacked a security checkpoint in central Mosul

05.11.2017

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By Ahmed Qassem

NINEVEH, Iraq

Three Iraqi forces were killed Sunday in an attack in the Old City of Mosul in northern Iraq, according to a local police officer.

Gunmen opened fire on a security checkpoint in Bab al-Toub in central Mosul, killing three soldiers, Capt. Ahmed al-Taher told Anadolu Agency.

He said the attackers had seized weapons of the slain troops and fled the scene unscathed.

The Iraqi officer blamed Daesh militants for the attack, saying that militants were still holed up in the Old City, which was captured by Iraqi forces earlier this year.

In July, the Iraqi army retook Mosul, the regional capital of the northern Nineveh province, from the Daesh terrorist group following a nine-month campaign.
 
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