Iraq's war against IS terrorism | Updates and Discussions

[Hindustani78]

Three Iraqi soldiers were killed on Monday as government forces pushed to dislodge Daesh militants from the Old City in western Mosul, according to a local police officer.

Iraqi forces were facing difficulty in storming the Bab al-Tob area of the Old City, where the fight is expected to be tough due to its narrow alleyways through which armored vehicles cannot pass.

Federal police officer Huzayfa al-Haj said Daesh attacks have forced Iraqi troops to retreat to the main government complex in western Mosul.

“Iraqi forces are waiting for military reinforcements and air support for continuing the fight against Daesh,” he told Anadolu Agency.

According to al-Haj, three soldiers were killed and four others injured in Daesh attacks in the area.

No information was available about Daesh losses in the fight.

On Monday, Joint Operations Command spokesman Brigadier-General Yahya Rasoul said Iraqi forces controlled nearly two-thirds of western Mosul.

"Our forces have seized control of 65 percent of western Mosul,” he told Anadolu Agency.

In mid-February, Iraqi forces -- backed by a U.S.-led air coalition -- began fresh operations aimed at dislodging Daesh terrorists from western Mosul.

The offensive comes as part of a wider campaign launched last October to retake the city, which Daesh overran -- along with much of northern and western Iraq -- in mid-2014.

 

[Hindustani78]

14 March 2017
Iraqi federal police return from the front line during fighting against Islamic State militants in western Mosul, Iraq.

 

[Hindustani78]

http://aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/iraqi-forces-capture-strategic-bridge-in-western-mosul/772384

Iraqi forces have captured a strategic bridge in western Mosul from the Daesh terrorist group following two days of fighting, Federal Police officials announced Wednesday.

Police units and rapid-reaction forces captured western Mosul’s Old Bridge before advancing on the city’s nearby Ras al-Khour district, Raed Jawdat, commander of Iraq’s Federal Police Agency, said in a statement.

Iraqi joint forces have also begun to advance on western Mosul’s Bab al-Bayd district, Samir Dawoud al-Mohsen, an officer in the Iraqi army’s 9th division, told Anadolu Agency.

In mid-February, Iraqi forces -- backed by a U.S.-led air coalition -- began fresh operations aimed at dislodging Daesh terrorists from western Mosul.

The offensive is part of a wider campaign launched last October to retake the entire city, which Daesh overran in mid-2014.

 

[Hindustani78]

US Soldiers Mosul Iraq March 7 2017

 

[Hindustani78]

Al Tarab Iraq March 12 2017

Mosul Iraq March 7 2017

 

[TheCamelGuy]

US troops embedded with ISOF more since the new administration

 

[TheCamelGuy]

4 more F-16's will arrive this month.
6 FA-50 golden eagle have arrived in the southern port.

 

[Nike]

US troops embedded with ISOF more since the new administration

the new Administration is not all talk and do nothing

 

[Hindustani78]

http://www.arabnews.com/node/1070266/middle-east

MOSUL, Iraq: Elite Iraqi forces battled house by house in the Old City of Mosul on Saturday, inching toward the mosque where the Daesh group proclaimed its “caliphate” in 2014, a spokesman said.

Commanders said that progress in the densely populated warren of alleyways was slow but that government forces had made new gains from Daesh in the heart of their last major urban bastion in Iraq.

“Our forces are 800 meters from the mosque,” said Captain Firas Al-Zuwaidi, spokesman for the interior ministry’s elite Rapid Response Force.

He was referring to the Al-Nuri Mosque, where Daesh leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi declared the cross-border “caliphate” spanning jihadist-controlled territory in Iraq and Syria in his sole public appearance in July 2014.
“We are encountering difficulties — bad weather and streets too narrow for our military vehicles which cannot enter,” Zuwaidi said.

“The fighting is street by street, house by house,” he said, as the sound of mortar fire rang out from the heart of Iraq’s second city.

The battle for the Old City was always expected to be the toughest of the campaign to retake Mosul from Daesh, further complicated by the presence of hundreds of thousands of civilians believed to have stayed on under jihadist rule.

Iraqi forces launched the huge operation last October, retaking the east of the city in January before setting their sights on the smaller but more densely populated west.

The Tigris River divides the two parts of Mosul. The Old City lies at the heart of the west bank.

The Rapid Response Force is being backed up by the federal police who have made steady gains in recent days.

They have now taken the Al-Arbiaa market and a grain silo overlooking the Old City, federal police commander Lt. Gen. Raed Shakir Jawdat said on Saturday.

That came after Jawdat announced the capture of the Al-Basha Mosque and the Bab Al-Saray market on Friday.

Iraqi forces had already taken a string of key targets in west Mosul, including the airport, the train station, Mosul Museum and the provincial government headquarters.

 

[TheCamelGuy]

https://twitter.com/x/status/843451639780560896

 

[Hindustani78]

An rocket fired by Federal Police Rapid Response Forces explodes near the old city during fighting against Islamic State in Mosul, Iraq.

 

[Hindustani78]

In Iraq, the coalition conducts six strikes consisting of 53 engagements. One strike near Al Qaim engaged an Daesh tactical unit and destroyed a vehicle while another near Tal Afar destroyed a building.

Four strikes near Mosul engaged tactical units and sniper teams, destroyed fighting positions, rocket-propelled grenade systems, VBIEDs, an anti-air artillery system, heavy machine gun and supply cache and damaged supply routes, fighting positions and mortar teams.

 

[Hindustani78]

http://aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/iraqi-forces-take-two-more-villages-in-western-mosul/777407
The Iraqi army Wednesday announced the recapture of two more villages of western Mosul from the Daesh terrorist group.

“The army’s 9th Armored Division has liberated the villages of Al-Yaseen and Arihla in [western Mosul’s] northern Badush district,” Staff Lieutenant-General Abdul Amir Yarallah, commander of the ongoing Mosul campaign, said in a statement.

According to Army First Lieutenant Samir, at least 12 Daesh militants were killed in the operation.

Troops from the 9th Division, Dawood told Anadolu Agency, “managed to retake the two villages after besieging them for several hours with support from the U.S.-led air coalition, which struck four Daesh targets”.

In mid-February, Iraqi forces -- backed by the U.S.-led coalition -- began fresh operations aimed at ousting Daesh militants from western Mosul, the terrorist group’s last bastion in northern Iraq.

The offensive is part of a wider campaign launched last October to retake the entire city, which Daesh overran in mid-2014.

 

[Hindustani78]

23 March 2017
A Federal Police stands next to unexploded bombs left by Islamic State militants on the western side of Mosul, Iraq.

 

[TheCamelGuy]