Displaced people streaming out of west Mosul (Reuters)
The police continued their frontal assault to take the Grand
Mosque in the Old City of west Mosul, but the real story was the Golden
Division moving up the flank of the district. On March 29 the Federal Police
freed Malab
while there was fighting by the police and Golden Division in Yarmouk,
Zinjali
and Tanak.
The next day the Federal Police and Rapid Reaction Division took Alban,
while Qadhib al-Ban was officially declared
liberated. The Golden Division only reported taking an intersection and some
buildings, showing that it was a slow day. The goal is for the police to tie
down the Islamic State in the Old City, while the Golden Division surrounds the
district. This is part of a revised battle plan after the ISF got bogged down
trying to take the district. Now the goal is to attack the insurgents on
multiple fronts.
Outside Mosul to the west the 9th Division freed Sabounia.
This division and the Al-Abbas unit were originally supposed to be a third
front in west Mosul, but it looks like they will remain on the perimeter for
now.
U.S. General Joseph Votel told Congress about
the losses the Iraqis have suffered in the battle for Mosul. He testified that
490 ISF were killed and around 3,000 wounded in the east, and 284 died and
1,600 have been injured so far in the west. The next day the Iraqi Joint
Operations Command denied
those numbers. Not only does the Iraqi government not report its losses, but
actively tries to discredit any reports that include a large number of
casualties. It has gone after the United Nations and actively tried to spread
disinformation about the Jadida airstrike incident for example. Baghdad
originally didn’t want to reports its dead and wounded fearing that it would
harm public morale. Now that the tide of the war has changed it appears that it
is just interested in reporting victories, and opposes anything that disrupts
that narrative.
Speaking of Jadida, a local health official was quoted by Reuters
that 250 people had died in the incident. The previous high had been 240. U.S. General
Stephen Townsend said that the Coalition was probably involved in the incident,
and a U.S. investigation was under way. Early reports had 2-3 buildings being
destroyed in the strike, which could account for the high death count.
Survivors and residents have said there were people sheltering in the basement.
The insurgents have forced people to stay in buildings they are using, and
civilians have also hid from the fighting as well. IS might have laid
explosives in the building too. There are still plenty of questions of exactly
what happened. The Iraqi authorities are not helping as they issued two stories
meant to deceive the media talking about a booby-trapped building and a car
bomb being involved instead of an air strike. Neither of those happened in
Jadida however.
Civilians remain the main victim of the on going fighting.
On March 29 mortars hit seven neighborhoods killing 28 and wounding 15. The
Islamic State also ambushed a group of people attempting to flee leaving 18
dead and 42 injured, and an IED hit a similar group resulting in 7 fatalities
and four wounded. Finally, 50 bodies were removed from destroyed buildings.
March 30, IS mortars, gunfire, and IEDs in both west and liberated east Mosul
killed 43 and wounded 26. The militants executed 23 people who were caught
escaping. The Islamic State has been indiscriminately firing into civilian
areas, and targeting the displaced, as well as regularly shelling freed east
Mosul. The majority of casualties reported each day come from these types of
incidents.
Niqash
had an article on how the high civilian toll may have been avoided in the
battle. In previous urban assaults such as Fallujah, Ramadi and Tikrit, an
escape route was left open for the insurgents to leave. When Fallujah was
assaulted for example, there was a western corridor where Islamic State
fighters could flee to Qaim. Army Colonel Raed al-Tamimi told Niqash that the
same thing was supposed to happen in Mosul, but then the strategy was changed.
Instead Mosul was surrounded. If IS members were allowed a way to say Tal Afar
they could have been destroyed there without having to worry about all the civilians
getting in the way as the town is largely abandoned. Instead, not only was
Mosul encircled, but the government told people to stay in the city because
they couldn't be taken care of it they left.
The Iraqi security forces uncovered
a new mass grave. This was discovered in Hamam al-Alil south of Mosul.
Approximately 50 bodies were found. Every time the insurgents are expelled from
an area one of these sites turns up. They are a constant reminder of the
brutality of the group.
Agence
France Presse went to the Christian town of Qaraqosh, which is to the east
of Mosul. After militants seized the town in June 2014 they set about
destroying churches and other signs of Christianity. The town was then freed in
October 2016, but remains empty of civilians. Residents said they were not
going back because there were no services and many of the buildings have been
damaged and destroyed. The government lacks the money to rebuild the town as
well. One man now living in Irbil said he felt like there was nothing to go
back to. Others accused the Kurds of stopping people from returning because
they wish to control the area. Qaraqosh is in the disputed territories, which
the Kurdistan Regional Government wishes to annex. The Kurds have consistently
attempted to manipulate and co-opt the minorities there to achieve that goal.
The International Organization for Migration provided
the latest figures for the officially displaced (IDPs). On March 2 there were
191,826 people signed up with aid groups and the authorities. That rose by
95,424 nearly a month later to 287,250 by March 30. There are many more IDPs who
are not registered and the Displaced Ministry has been giving higher numbers as
well. There have been far more displaced coming out of east Mosul then the west
because of the heavy fighting, casualties, and the fact that thousands of
people were forced into the city from surrounding towns to be used as human
shields by the Islamic State.
SOURCES
Adel, Loaa, “Federal police advances toward Hadba Minaret in
central Mosul,” Iraqi News, 3/30/17
- “Security forces advance and liberate more areas in
Mosul,” Iraqi News, 3/30/17
AIN, "Liberation of a neighborhood
in West Mosul and village of Sabounia and train station west Badush,"
3/30/17
Ali, Idrees, “U.S. military says difficult to avoid Mosul
casualties, probes blast,” Reuters, 3/30/17
Associated Press, “Mosul lays bare the challenge of
asymmetric warfare,” 3/30/17
Baghdad
Post, "60 people killed, injured in ISIS ambush in Mosul," 3/29/17
-
"Child killed, relative injured in mortar attack in Mosul's right
bank," 3/30/17
-"ISIS
kills three civilians in Mosul's right bank," 3/30/17
Bas
News, "22 IS Militants Killed in West Mosul: Police," 3/29/17
BBC, “Mosul battle: Iraqi forces edge closer to key mosque,”
3/29/17
Buratha News, “Joint operations deny the martyrdom and
wounding of 1,884 fighters in the battle for west Mosul,” 3/30/17
Cockburn, Patrick, “Bloodbath in West Mosul: Civilians Being
Shot by Both ISIS and Iraqi Troops,” Counter Punch, 3/29/17
Coles, Isabel and Davison, John, “Iraqi forces battle to
Mosul mosque, 17 killed in Baghdad,” Reuters, 3/29/17
Davison, John and Rasheed, Ahmed, “Inside Mosul, a huge
blast, then screams, dust and horror,” Reuters, 3/30/17
Gordon, Michael, “U.S. ‘Probably had a Role’ in Mosul
Deaths, Commander Says,” New York Times, 3/28/17
Habib, Mustafa, “Laying The Blame: In Iraq, Analysts Weigh
In On Accidental Airstrike That Killed Hundreds In Mosul,” Niqash, 3/29/17
Handicap International, “Major crisis in Mosul: Hospitals
unable to cope with number of casualties,” 3/30/17
Hussein, Sara, “Freed from IS, but Iraq’s Qaraqosh is now a
ghost town,” Agence France Presse, 3/28/17
International Organization for Migration, “Displacement
Tracking Matrix Emergency Tracking Factsheet #22 – Mosul Operations From 17
October To 30 March,” 3/30/17
Iraq Oil Report, "Inside Mosul:
March 29, 2017," 3/29/17
-
"Inside Mosul, March 30, 2017," 3/30/17
Al Mada, “Joint forces liberate new neighborhoods and
tighten their grip on Old City Mosul,” 3/30/17
Mostafa,
Mohamed, "IS execute 23 civilians in western Mosul, arrest leader over
treason," Iraqi News, 3/30/17
- "Police forces retake areas near central Mosul's Old City,
approach landmark mosque," Iraqi News, 3/28/17
- “Special forces search for IS members hiding among eastern
Mosul residents,” Iraqi News, 3/29/17
Mustafa, Nehal, "Iraqi troops liberates Qadib al-Ban
neighborhood, western Mosul," Iraqi News, 3/30/17
-
"Three unidentified bodies found in east Mosul, women killed, injured in
west of city," Iraqi News, 3/30/17
Neuhof, Florian, “Amid the fog of war, pinpointing blame for
civilian deaths in Mosul is difficult,” The National, 3/29/17
New Sabah, “Displaced from West Mosul reveal the secrets of
Daash,” 3/29/17
NINA, "Federal Police Free Two Areas In The West Side Of
Mosul," 3/29/17
- "-Security Forces Storm Zanjili
Area In Mosul's Right Side," 3/29/17
Reuters, “Over 280 Iraqi security forces members killed in
west Mosul – U.S. general,” 3/29/17
Rudaw, “Survivor of March 17th western Mosul
bombing shares harrowing tale,” 3/30/17
Shafaaq
News, "found a cemetery containing dozens of bodies massacred in
Jadida," 3/29/17
-
"Mosul swimming coach and two others were killed by shelling in the center
of the city," 3/29/17
Al
Sumaria, "11 civilians were killed and wounded in an explosion targeting
them as they fled from Daash west Mosul," 3/29/17
Xinhua, “Iraqi forces push toward IS-held old city in
western Mosul,” 3/29/17
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