Iraqi forces captured the Hurriya Bridge March 6 and
prematurely claimed to have taken the government complex, but were ambushed by
the Islamic State (BBC)
March 6 the Iraqi forces (ISF) were moving into the middle
of west Mosul. First the Federal Police (FP) and Rapid Reaction Division (RRD) captured the
Hurriya Bridge. This was the second span across the Tigris that the ISF
secured. All of the bridges were knocked out by the U.S. led Coalition during
the battle for east Mosul to hinder the Islamic State’s movement within the
city. The FP and RRD also seized
a number of government buildings and public works in the Danadan neighborhood.
The Golden Division was fighting in the western outskirts and center of the
western section of the city and seized Samoud.
Finally, Dour
al-Sokkar near the Ghazlani Camp just outside of Mosul was also freed.
On March 7 there were more advances. On the western fringe
of the city Tal Ruman was declared freed on March
6, and then fully cleared the
next day. The FP and RRD liberated
Dandan, Dawas, and Mohana,
and attacked Nabi
Sheet once again. Dandan had been liberated two times before. The Golden
Division on the other hand, attacked
Shuhada, Muallemin, and Okaidat,
and was still fighting in Mansour.
The ISF claimed it was in Shuhada more than a week before it had even reached
the area. The Iraqis have a bad habit of exaggerating how far they have moved
ahead.
March 7 also witnessed a major setback. The police forces declared
they seized the government complex near the Tigris River early in the morning.
The RRD launched
a surprise night attacked and rushed to the government center followed by the
Federal Police. An FP general told the press he wanted to catch the Islamic
State unaware. What the police did not do was clear their route. Just before
noon IS began counter attacking and surrounded the police. Federal Police
reinforcements had to be sent in to fight there way through the insurgent lines
and rescue the trapped officers. The Federal Police commander wanted a
propaganda victory by hoisting the Iraqi flag over the government buildings and
sacrificed an unknown amount of his men for a short lived victory, which ended
in a retreat. A similar fiasco occurred in the battle for east Mosul when the
army’s 9th Division made a quick thrust towards a major hospital
complex only to find out it was a trap set by the militants, and had to be
saved costing a large number of casualties. The Iraqi forces are currently
maintaining a multi-front operation against Mosul, but still suffer from these
occasional poor choices.
To the southwest the 9th Division and the
Al-Abbas Division of the Hashd entered the Badush
area. They captured part of the prison there, which was the site of hundreds of
executions by the Islamic State. As happens too many times the army claimed
it had seized the prison a week ago. Two towns in the district were cleared
as well. The army and Hashd are trying to cut off Mosul from the west, and will
eventually push into the city itself.
Out in the west the Hashd said that Tal Afar had been
completely isolated
and they were preparing to take it. The fate of the town however, remains up in
the air with Iraqi officials constantly switching back and forth between the
Hashd and the ISF liberating the town. Despite all the announcements nothing is
likely to happen until the battle for Mosul is finished.
Civilians are taking the brunt of the fighting. Unidentified
and Coalition air
strikes were
blamed for the deaths of 116 people and 140 wounded. Iraqi artillery
cost the lives of 5 more. Islamic State mortars
left
7 fatalities and 26 injured. The insurgents executed 35 people, and a mass grave was
discovered in east Mosul with 50 victims of IS.
The Golden Division’s Abdul Ghani al-Assadi and Ninewa
Operations commander General Najim Jabouri claimed that
the United States had provided equipment that jammed IS drones. General Saadi was
quoted as saying the number of drone strikes dropped from 72 to 52 and then
eventually down to 0. Ironically on March 8 video was released of General Saadi
being buzzed by an IS drone in Mosul so this story appears to be an exaggeration.
These devices have been more of a nuisance than a real threat to the ISF. Their
most important use was to spot targets for IS mortars and car bombs.
The Americans noted that on the tactical level the fight for
west Mosul is still a hard slog, but strategically the insurgents are defeated.
According
to Colonel John Dorrian the Islamic State is not able to stop the advance of
the Iraqi forces. General Matthew Isler added
that the militant’s defenses were not well organized or coordinated. U.S.
statements have been cautiously optimistic about the Mosul campaign.
Huge numbers of people are still flowing out of west Mosul.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) talked
with a woman who fled the city because her family had been starving for a
month. She was feeding her kids water and flour, sometimes with some tomato
paste added. Over 50,000 have left the western section of the city pushing the
total number of registered displaced to 211,572. These people are overflowing
the camps set up for them. The ones
to the south of Mosul are full, and the ones in Kurdistan are almost at
capacity The UNHCR just opened a new camp 20 kilometers to the east of Mosul to
try to accommodate the new outflow. When the Mosul campaign started in October
2016 the government told people to stay in their homes because neither it nor
the aid agencies had the money or capacity to help them. Now their resources
are being strained with no relief in sight.
The pro-Iran Hashd made their weekly attack upon the
Americans. Asaib Ahl Al-Haq spokesman Jawad Talabawi accused the United
States of dropping supplies to the Islamic State in Mosul and evacuating its
senior leaders out of the city. He went on to state that the Hashd had stopped
the U.S. from doing the same in Tal Afar. Tehran’s allies in Iraq have been
making these types of statements since 2014 to try to undermine Washington’s
position in the country.
The Christian
Science Monitor had an uplifting story of how Mosul was trying to rebuild
via education. While the Islamic State ran the city for two years very few kids
got an education. Those that went to school were taught IS’s form of Islam and
prepared for war as much of the curriculum used martial terms such as counting
guns or bullets for math. Now classrooms are overflowing. This is the start to
what promises to be a long process of trying to make up for what the insurgents
did to Mosul, and Iraqi society in general. A former professor from Mosul
University thought it would take 5-10 years to heal all the damage that was
done.
Finally the brewing political disputes over the future of
Ninewa continued. A parliamentary (MP) told New Sabah that the Arab
parties were opposed to former Governor Atheel Nujafi and current Vice
President Osama Nujafi’s plans to make the province a federal region. The MP went
on to say that the Nujafis were working with the Kurds to fragment Ninewa. These
arguments will only increase as more time passes as there are a plethora of
forces vying to control Ninewa ranging from the Nujafis to Kurdish President
Massoud Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) to Prime Minister Haidar
Abadi to the standing provincial government to Turkey’s Kurdistan Workers’
Party (PKK) to Turkey itself to the various minority groups that reside there.
SOURCES
Abdul-Zahra, Qassim, "Wave of Daesh car bombs targets Iraqi
troops in west Mosul," Associated Press, 3/5/17
Abdullah, Dalshad, “Mosul Battles Turn into ‘War of
Alleyways,’” Asharq Al-Awsat
Adel, Loaa, "IS chemical missiles kill 4 civilians and wounds
25 others near Mosul," Iraqi News, 3/6/17
- "Security forces storm Bab Laksh area south of Mosul,"
Iraqi News, 3/7/17
Airwars, "March 6th 2017 Railway station, Right side of
Mosul, Nineveh province, Iraq"
- "March 6th 2017 Several neighbourhoods at the right side of
Mosul, Nineveh province, Iraq"
Baghdad Post, "31 civilians killed, dozens injured as
airstrikes on western Mosul continue," 3/6/17
-
"Fierce clashes to retake al-Okaidat district in right Mosul," 3/6/17
- "Iraq forces liberate Dour al-Sokkar district near
Ghazlani, Mosul," 3/6/1
- "Iraqi Army captures Badush prison on Mosul-Tal Afar
road," 3/1/17
- "Iraqi CTS forces recapture Tel al-Ruman in Mosul's right
bank," 3/6/17
Bas
News, "Mass Grave of Civilians Found in Mosul after Ousting IS,"
3/6/17
BBC, “Mosul battle: Troops retake main government office,”
3/7/17
- “Mosul IS offensive: Iraqi forces capture second bridge
over Tigris,” 3/6/17
Chmaytelli, Maher, "Over 40,000 displaced from Mosul in a
week as Iraqi forces near old city," Reuters, 3/5/17
Coles, Isabel, “IS foreign fighters trying to flee Mosul,
Iraqi forces to prevail, U.S. general says,” Reuters,” 3/7/17
Coles, Isabel and Davison, John, “Iraqi forces retake Mosul
museum, close in on IS-controlled old town,” Reuters, 3/7/17
Euro News, “Iraqi forces ‘make strides in Mosul,’” 3/7/17
Gamal-Gabriel, Tony, “Life in a basement on Mosul’s front
line,” Agence France Presse, 3/6/17
George, Susannah and Rosa, Andrea, “Daring nighttime raid
turns to deadly trap in Mosul,” Associated Press, 3/7/17
George, Susannah and Salaheddin, Sinan, “Iraqi forces storm
Mosul government complex, hoist flag,” Associated Press, 3/7/17
Gluck, Caroline, “Hunger and violence drive residents to
flee west Mosul,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees, 3/7/17
Iraq
Oil Report, "Inside Mosul: March 6, 2017," 3/7/17
- "Inside Mosul: March 7, 2017," 3/7/17
Al Jazeera, “Forces claim gains in battle for Mosul’s Old
City,” 3/7/17
Al Maalomah, “Fayad: Daash began hiding among the citizens
and escape to the mountains,” 3/7/17
- "Popular crowd hold parts of Badush prison west of
Mosul," 3/7/17
- “Popular crowd preparing for the liberation of Tal Afar
after fully encircling it,” 3/6/17
- “Talabawi revealed Americans landing in Mosul to evacuate
prominent Daesh leaders from Mosul,” 3/6/17
Al Mada, “Surprise attack on government complex in west
Mosul after killing 30 snipers,” 3/7/17
Mostafa, Mohamed, "Airstrikes kill 22 civilians west of
Mosul, IS execute 43 including members," Iraqi News, 3/6/17
- “Iraqi forces capture strategic bridge, get closer to old
Mosul,” Iraqi News, 3/6/17
- “Iraqi forces recapture district, storm another en route
to central Mosul,” Iraqi News, 3/6/17
- "Iraqi forces take over 2 western Mosul districts, storm 2
others," Iraqi News, 3/7/17
- “Sources: Islamic State seniors instructed to withdraw
from Mosul to Syria’s Raqqa,” Iraqi News, 3/7/17
- "UPDATED: Iraqi forces recapture several govt facilities in
western Mosul," Iraqi News
New Sabah, “Arabs reject the conversion of Ninewa
province..and the Kurds do not mind,” 3/6/17
- “Daesh spread havoc in Mosul and committed atrocities
against its people,” 3/6/17
- “Federal Police are preparing to storm the government
compound in the right bank of Mosul,” 3/6/17
- “The fall of important Daesh strongholds..and the Iraqi
flag flying above the government building in Mosul,” 3/7/17
NINA, "Rapid Reaction Forces Storm The First Popular Area In
The Southern Axis Of Mosul," 2/25/17
Peterson, Scott, “Neglected under ISIS, schools in eastern
Mosul overflow with students once again,” Christian Science Monitor, 3/7/17
Reuters, “Iraq security forces take control of Mosul’s main
government building – Iraqi spokesman,” 3/7/17
Rudaw, "Iraqi forces recapture two west Mosul
neighborhoods," 2/26/17
- "Iraqi forces retake bridge, neighborhoods, surround gov't
buildings in west Mosul," 3/6/17
- "LIVE: Iraqi forces breach 'strong defense lines' of ISIS,
liberate state building," 3/7/17
UN High Commissioner for Refugees, “UNHCR opens new camp as
numbers of families fleeing Mosul continues to increase,” 3/7/17
World Health Organization, “WHO Special Situation Report –
Mosul Crisis, Iraq – issue No 8: 19 February to 28 February,” 3/6/17
Xinhua, “Iraqi forces advance further in IS-held western
Mosul,” 3/6/17
- "Iraqi forces extend grip in IS stronghold in western
Mosul," 3/8/17
- “Iraqi forces seize gov’t buildings from IS militants in
Mosul,” 3/7/17
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