Iraq's war against IS terrorism | Updates and Discussions

[TheCamelGuy]

https://twitter.com/x/status/833381133953925121

 

[Hindustani78]

 

[Hindustani78]

http://zeenews.india.com/world/iraqi-forces-battle-their-way-toward-mosul-airport_1979233.html

South of Mosul/Baghdad: US-backed Iraqi forces fought Islamic State fighters on Monday to clear the way to Mosul`s airport, on the second day of a ground offensive on the jihadists` remaining stronghold in the western side of the city.

Federal police and elite interior ministry units known as Rapid Response are leading the charge toward the airport, located on the southern limit of the Mosul, trying to dislodge the militants from a nearby hill known as Albu Saif.

The Iraqi forces plan is to turn the airport into a close support base for the onslaught into western Mosul itself.

Islamic State militants are essentially under siege in western Mosul, along with an estimated 650,000 civilians, after they were forced out of the eastern part of the city in the first phase of an offensive that concluded last month, after 100 days of fighting.

"They are striking and engaging our forces and pulling back towards Mosul," Major Mortada Ali Abd of the Rapid Response units told a Reuters correspondent south of Mosul. "God willing Albu Saif will be fully liberated today."

Helicopters were strafing the Albu Saif hill to clear it of snipers, while machine gun fire and rocket-propelled grenades could be heard. The advancing forces also disabled a car bomb - used by the militants to obstruct attacking forces.

The Iraqi forces have been advancing so far in sparsely populated areas. The fighting will get tougher as they get nearer to the city itself and the risk greater for the civilians.

Up to 400,000 civilians could be displaced by the offensive as residents of western Mosul suffer food and fuel shortages and markets are closed, United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq Lise Grande told Reuters on Saturday.

Commanders expect the battle to be more difficult than in the east of the city, which Iraqi forces have took control of last month after three months of fighting, because tanks and armoured vehicles cannot pass through its narrow alleyways.

The militants have developed a network of passageways and tunnels to enable them to hide and fight among civilians, disappear after hit-and-run operations and track government troop movements, according to residents.

Western Mosul contains the old city centre, with its ancient souks, government administrative buildings, and the mosque from which Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared his self-styled caliphate over parts of Syria and Iraq in 2014.

The city is the largest urban centre captured by Islamic State in both countries.

Islamic State was thought to have up to 6,000 fighters in Mosul when the government`s offensive started in mid-October. Of those, more than 1,000 have been killed, according to Iraqi estimates.


The remainder now faces a 100,000-strong force made up of Iraqi armed forces, including elite paratroopers and police, Kurdish forces and Iranian-trained Shi`ite paramilitary groups.

The westward road that links the city to Syria was cut in November by the Shi`ite paramilitary known as Popular Mobilization forces. The militants are in charge of the road that links Mosul to Tal Afar, a town they control 60 km (40 miles) to the west.

CIVILIAN LIVES

Coalition aircraft and artillery have continued to bombard targets in the west during the break that followed the taking of eastern Mosul.

The United States, which has deployed more than 5,000 troops in the fighting, leads an international coalition providing key air and ground support, including artillery fire, to the Iraqi and Kurdish forces.

US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who arrived in Baghdad on Monday on an unannounced visit, declined to offer details about US battle plans when speaking to reporters on Sunday.

"The coalition forces are in support of this operation and we will continue ... with the accelerated effort to destroy ISIS," he said, using an acronym for the militant group.

Mattis also said the U.S. military is not in Iraq to seize the country`s oil, distancing himself from remarks by President Donald Trump.

Islamic State imposed a radical version of Islam in Mosul, banning cigarettes, televisions and radios, and forcing men to grow beards and women to cover from head to toe. Citizens who failed to comply risked death.

Capturing Mosul would effectively end the Sunni group`s ambitions for the territorial rule in Iraq. The militants are expected to continue to wage an insurgency, however, carrying out suicide bombings and inspiring lone-wolf actions abroad.

About 160,000 civilians have been displaced since the start of the offensive in October, UN officials say. Medical and humanitarian agencies estimate the total number of dead and wounded - both civilian and military - at several thousand.

"This is the grim choice for children in western Mosul right now: bombs, crossfire and hunger if they stay – or execution and snipers if they try to run," Save the Children said, adding that children make up about half the population trapped in the city.


First Published: Monday, February 20, 2017 - 13:56

 

[monitor]

Couchsurfing.. Iraq'i style ))

 

[Hindustani78]

US-backed Iraqi forces launched a large-scale military operation to dislodge Islamic State militants from the western half of Mosul city. (Photo: File/AP)

 

[Hindustani78]

http://www.militarytimes.com/articles/us-service-member-dies-in-non-combat-incident-in-iraq

A U.S. service member died Monday in a non-combat related incident outside of Ramadi, Iraq, officials said in a statement.

The service member was deployed in support of Operation Inherent Resolve.

The service member's name or any other identifying information have not been released, pending notification of his or her family. Officials also did not release any additional information on the incident that caused the death.

 

[Hindustani78]

Iraqi security forces advance in the village of al-Buseif, south of Mosul, during an offensive to retake the western side of the city from Islamic State (IS) group fighters on February 21, 2017.(AFP Photo)


US-backed Iraqi forces closing in on the Islamic State-held western half of Mosul prepared on Tuesday to storm the airport and a nearby military base on its southern outskirts to create a bridgehead for a thrust into the city.

Since ousting IS from eastern Mosul last month, Iraqi forces have advanced in sparsely populated outlying areas but fighting will intensify as they near the teeming inner city of western Mosul and the risk to roughly 750,000 civilians there will rise.

The U.S. military commander in Iraq has said he believes U.S.-backed forces will retake both of IS’s urban bastions - Mosul and Raqqa in neighbouring Syria - within the next six months, which would end the jihadists’ ambitions to territorial rule three years after they declared a “caliphate”.

Iraqi federal police and elite interior ministry units known as Rapid Response have made rapid progress towards western Mosul in a sweep upwards through stony desert terrain from the south since launching the offensive’s second phase on Sunday.

After fighting their way with helicopter gunships, machine gun fire and rocket-propelled grenades to Albu Saif on Monday, Iraqi forces were building up their positions in the hilltop village that overlooks the airport and built-up western Mosul beyond, a Reuters correspondent reported from the area.

The corpse of an Islamic State insurgent with a missing leg lay in the street of Albu Saif village.

Iraqi forces reached the “vicinity” of Mosul’s international airport on Monday, the military said. A Rapid Response spokesman said the airport, once retaken, would be a close-support base for the onslaught into the west of Iraq’s second largest city.

Iraqi forces will also need to secure the Gozhlani military complex, which includes barracks and training grounds and sprawls across the area between the airport and the end of the Baghdad-Mosul highway.

A senior Iraqi official said the airport and Gozhlani base had been heavily damaged by U.S.-led air strikes to wear down IS militants ahead of the offensive. He said Iraqi forces did not anticipate much resistance at the airport or base especially as the area was exposed to air strikes and artillery bombardment.

“The next step, God willing, is to advance to the Ghozlani military base,” said Rapid Response Captain Mohammed Ali Mohsen, speaking inside a house where the IS slogan, “The Islamic State is Staying”, was scrawled in marker pen on the walls.

The Counter-Terrorism Service, Iraqi units that were trained by the United States for urban warfare and spearheaded the recapture of east Mosul, are now redeploying and are expected to surge into the city’s west once regular forces clear access points.

Iraqi commanders expect the battle to be more difficult than in the east of Mosul, however, in part because tanks and armoured vehicles cannot pass through narrow alleyways that crisscross the city’s ancient western districts.

Militants have developed a network of passageways and tunnels to enable them to hide and fight among civilians,melt away after hit-and-run operations and track government troop movements, according to inhabitants.

The U.S. commander in Iraq, Army Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, told a news conference in Baghdad on Monday he had been placing U.S. military advisers closer to front lines in Mosul.

Islamic State is essentially under siege in western Mosul,after being driven out of city districts east of the River Tigris after 100 days of heavy fighting ending in January.

IS has prevented residents from leaving but in the first two months of the Mosul campaign, in October and November, it forced thousands of villagers to march alongside its fleeing militants as human shields against air strikes.

“GRIM CHOICE FOR CHILDREN”

“This is the grim choice for children in western Mosul right now: bombs, crossfire and hunger if they stay – or execution and snipers if they try to run,” the Save the Children humanitarian agency said in a statement. It added that children comprise about half the population in the city’s western sector.

Up to 400,000 civilians could be displaced by the offensive,with western Mosul suffering food and fuel shortages and
markets closed, according to the United Nations.

Western Mosul contains the old city centre, with its ancient souks, government administration buildings and the mosque from which Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed his self-styled caliphate over parts of Syria and Iraq after shock territorial advances by IS in 2014.

Mosul is the largest urban centre captured by IS in either country. As in Syria’s Raqqa, IS imposed a radical version of sharia law in Mosul, banning cigarettes, televisions and radios, and forcing men to grow beards and women to cover from head to toe. Citizens who failed to comply risked death.

Townsend has said he believes U.S.-backed forces will recapture both Mosul and Syria’s Raqqa in Syria by mid-2017.

But even without notable territorial holdings, the resilient militants are likely to keep up a campaign of suicide bombings and inspiring lone-wolf shooting and bomb attacks abroad.

Islamic State was thought to have up to 6,000 well-armed insurgents in Mosul when the government offensive started in mid-October. Of those, more than 1,000 have been killed, according to Iraqi military estimates.

The remainder now face a 100,000-strong force made up of Iraqi armed forces, including elite paratroopers and police,regional Kurdish peshmerga forces and Iranian-trained Shi’ite Muslim paramilitary groups.

The westward road that links Mosul to Syrian territory was cut in November by the Shi’ite paramilitary known as Popular Mobilization forces. They are now trying to sever the route linking Mosul to Tal Afar, a town under IS control 60 km (40miles) to the west near the Syrian border.

The United States, which has deployed more than 5,000 troops in the fighting, leads an international coalition providing air and ground support to the Iraqi and Kurdish forces.

About 160,000 civilians have been displaced from the Mosul area since the start of the offensive, U.N. officials say. Medical and humanitarian agencies estimate the total number of dead and wounded - civilian and military - at several thousand.

 

[Hindustani78]

US-led coalition forces have supported Iraqi troops since the campaign against ISIS in Mosul began in mid-October, and that backing as continued in the weeks since the eastern side of the city was retaken in late January.

In a February 11 strike, shown in footage below provided by the US Defense Department, coalition aircraft knocked out an ISIS tank near the city.

http://giphy.com/gifs/tank-isis-ira...frame&utm_medium=embed&utm_campaign=tag_click



The strike against the tank near Mosul was one of 28 engagements conducted during six airstrikes in the country that day, Operation Inherent Resolve officials said in a release.

Five airstrikes near Mosul targeted two ISIS tactical units and destroyed three motor systems, two supply caches, two ISIS-held buildings, and engineering equipment. The strikes also destroyed 13 watercraft like the ones the group has used to maneuver along the Tigris River, which divides Mosul into western and eastern portions.

Farther north, near Irbil, a coalition strike destroyed an ISIS-held building and a weapons cache.

While eastern Mosul is back in Iraqi government hands, many people in that part of the city say ISIS fighters remain and pose a deadly threat. Suicide bombers have targeted Iraqi troops and government-allied tribal forces, as well as restaurants and civilians on the eastern side of Mosul.

Despite that latent danger, Iraqi forces early on Sunday kicked off the next phase of the campaign against ISIS in Mosul, as ground units advanced on villages southwest of the city, backed by US-led coalition air support and artillery fired by militarized police units.

"This is zero hour and we are going to end this war, God willing," Mahmoud Mansour, a police officer, told the Associated Press he prepared to move out on Sunday.

 

[Hindustani78]

In this Friday, Jan. 27, 2017 photo, an Iraqi officer inspects drones belonging to Islamic State militants in Mosul, Iraq. (Photo: AP)

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/worl...ne-fleet-causes-worry-for-iraq-us-forces.html

In a worrying trend, an increasing number of armed drone strikes have been conducted by Islamic State (ISIS) in northern Iraq after it formally announced its new "Unmanned Aircraft of the Mujahideen" unit last month.

According to a Washington Post report, ISIS claimed that the unit has a fleet of unmanned drones equipped with bombs that had killed or injured many soldiers already.


The drones are about six feet wide with swept wings and are armed with a small bomb placed in its fuselage.

While the claims about casualties might be an exaggeration, US officials have acknowledged the existence of the drone fleet and were quoted to have said that the group is increasingly using technology to kill enemies.

Even though the drones cannot match the potential and ability of arms used by the US Military, the US and Iraqi forces have found enough reason to alert their troops on the frontlines.

While the drones cannot handle heavy bombs and rockets, they can carry small bombs which have an effective blast radius of 30-45 feet and can kill or injure dozens of people if dropped in a crowded area.

"Although dangerous, and effective as a propaganda tactic, it has limited operational effect on the battlefield and will not change the outcome," Air Force Col. John L. Dorrian, spokesman for the US-led coalition opposing the Islamic State, was quoted as saying.

The officials also were quoted saying that the strategy would not affect the government's plans to recapture Mosul, which was taken over by ISIS in 2014.

However, the move has forced the coalition troops to take extra precautionary measures against drones, such as early-detection systems and electronic jamming. The forces have also intensified the search to find the factories where the drones are being modified for attacks.

 

[TheCamelGuy]

First Lieutenant Bakr Al-Samara'i martyred by IS execution, he was captured weeks earlier.

ISOF prepares to join the battle for Eastern Mosul, so far only the federal police and ERU (interior minister SF) have been active in the new offensive.

 

[TheCamelGuy]

Mosul airport liberated.

https://twitter.com/x/status/834706430917750784

ISOF set up base at Ghazlani military camp near Mosul airport which was also liberated by the federal police.

OPS are going better due to the rise of experience and effectiveness of the forces fighting IS. Not IS having been weakened as other forces fighting them are struggling and often losing offensive OPS.

--

 

[Serpentine]

Mosul airport liberated.

https://twitter.com/x/status/834706430917750784

ISOF set up base at Ghazlani military camp near Mosul airport which was also liberated by the federal police.

Kudos and godspeed to Iraqi forces.

 

[Alshawi1234]

Many unreported battles in west Mosul in the past couple months.

IS has been launching large scale ops in hopes to breach the PMF lines and creating an a scape route to syria. Over a dozen ops have been launched in a desperate attempted only to fail every time.

There is no way out for them. Desperate and poorly planned attacks have cost them 500+ KIA on the Tel Afar front. Most of their elite leaders and fighters have been killed, now it's untrained and indiscipline fighters trying to break through the solid lines of PMF.

https://twitter.com/x/status/834691436633325568

https://twitter.com/x/status/834522764413456384

Must watch footage. One of many failed attacks against the PMF.

IS trying to sneak through to reinforce their positions only 300 meters from peshmerga positions. Taken out by PMF forces.

Direct hit on IS personal near Tel Afar

-------


In other news. Day 3 of the west mosul Ops.

Main highway route between Mosul and Tel afar has been cleared by PMF. IS could still use detour to the north.

Iraqi forces storm camp Ghazlani and Mosul airport in a swift operation.

Iraqi drones destroy 13 vehicles as IS was planning to use them for an attack on iraqi forces. Atrack was foiled before it had a chance to start.

 

[Hindustani78]

Smoke rises from the western side of Mosul following a U.S.-led coalition airstrike, in Abu Saif, outside the western side of Mosul, Iraq.

 

[Hindustani78]

Knocking IS out: Iraqi forces participating in an offensive to retake Mosul airport on Thursday. | Photo Credit:

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/iraqi-troops-capture-mosul-airport/article17355841.ece

Hope to use it as launchpad for future operations against the Islamic State in the city’s western part
U.S.-backed Iraqi security forces captured Mosul airport on Thursday, state television said, in a major gain in operations to drive Islamic State (IS) from the western half of the city.

Elite Counter Terrorism forces advanced from the southwestern side and entered the Ghozlani army base along with the southwestern districts of Tal al-Rumman and al-Mamoun.

Flight of civilians
Losing Mosul could spell the end of the Iraqi side of militants’ self-styled caliphate in Iraq and Syria, which Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared from the city after sweeping through vast areas of Iraq in 2014.

Iraqi forces hope to use the airport as a launchpad for their campaign to drive the militants from Iraq’s second largest city.

A Reuters correspondent saw more than 100 civilians fleeing towards Iraqi security forces from the district of al-Mamoun. Some of them were wounded.

“Daesh fled when counter terrorism Humvees reached al-Mamoun. We were afraid and we decided to escape towards the Humvees,” said Ahmed Atiya, one of the escaped civilians said.


“We were afraid from the shelling, he added.

Federal police and an elite Interior Ministry unit known as Rapid Response had battled their way into the airport as IS fighters fought back using suicide car bombs, a Reuters correspondent in the area south of Mosul airport said.

Police officers said the militants had also deployed bomb-carrying drones against the Iraqi Counter Terrorism Forces advancing from the southwestern side of the city.

“We are attacking Daesh [Islamic State] from multiple fronts to distract them and prevent them regrouping,” said federal police captain Amir Abdul Kareem, whose units are fighting near Ghozlani military base. “Its the best way to knock them down quickly.” Western advisers supporting Iraqi forces were seen some two km away from the front-line to the southwest of Mosul, a Reuters correspondent said.

Ghozlani base retaken
Iraqi forces last month ousted IS from eastern Mosul and embarked on a new offensive against the militant group in densely-populated western Mosul this week.

Counter-terrorism service (CTS) troops fought their way inside the nearby Ghozlani base, which includes barracks and training grounds close to the Baghdad-Mosul highway, a CTS spokesman told Reuters.