The Iraqi Security
Forces (ISF) were closing in on the last neighborhoods held by the Islamic
State in Mosul. The July 17, Iqtisadin, and Rifai areas were all liberated during the day. The July 17 was said to have
been freed on May 13, Iqtisadin on May 14, and Rifai on May 15. There was
fighting on going in Siha, Najar, Zinjali, Bab al-Tob, Mekawi and Bab al-Jadid. The militants only hold roughly 10% of the
city. The ISF routinely claim it has taken areas that are still contested or
sometimes before they even arrive. The battle for the city is nearly over, and these
places will eventually fall. The Iraqis can’t help themselves however from
overstating their progress. That is an unfortunate result of the victory
narrative the government has pushed since 2014.
For weeks, the
police claimed they were pushing on the Grand Mosque in the Old City district
of west Mosul where IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared the caliphate in
2014. The Joint Operations was now changing its tune explaining
why the area had not been seized yet. The narrow streets prevented military
vehicles from traversing them, and the dense layout of houses, and the use of
human shields all complicated the fight there. The district was reached in
March, and the police have been stuck there ever since. Eventually the plan
changed where the Interior Ministry forces were simply holding down the
insurgents, while the Golden Division moved up the perimeter. That ran into
some difficulties as well, leading to a new attack from the north, which caught
the Islamic State by surprise and led to the current quick advance through the
city. Again, Iraqi propaganda rarely admitted to the situation in the Old City,
and instead constantly claimed progress when little was being made.
The fourth day of
the Hashd offensive in western Ninewa took a pause. The forces were mostly cleaning up the towns they seized. Kurdish complaints about the Hashd seizing
Yazidi villages in Sinjar might have also played a role. Prime Minister Haider
Abadi got involved saying a delegation would be sent to Irbil to work out the
differences. Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party
(KDP) is struggling to regain political control of Sinjar dealing with the
Kurdistan Democratic Party (PKK) and Yazidis who no longer want to remain under
Kurdish hegemony. Having the Hashd enter the equation is just causing the KDP
more headaches.
People continue to
flow out of west Mosul due to the fighting. The Ninewa Operations Command announced that a
bridge was built from the western to eastern section in the north to allow
people to escape. The United Nations reported from May 14-16 around 25,000 people arrived at Hamam al-Alil the
screening center for displaced (IDPs). It also noted that many people who had
moved to east Mosul were now leaving and going to camps in Kurdistan because of
the lack of jobs in the city. From May 12-14 3,000 IDPs arrived in those
facilities. The government is about to open a new IDP camp in Hamam al-Alil.
There are currently 326,000 displaced in camps in Ninewa and Kurdistan, 18,000
in northern Syria, and an unknown amount camping in Hamam al-Alil and within
Mosul itself.
SOURCES
Al Arabiya, “ISIS attacks Iraqi forces in Mosul with five
suicide car bombs,” 5/17/17
Baghdad Post, “Exclusive: Parts regained from ISIS in
Mosul explained on map,” 5/17/17
- “ISIS terrorists attack Iraqi forces in western Mosul,”
5/17/17
Buratha News, “Joint operations reveal why the Nuri
Mosque was not stormed,” 5/17/17
Iraq Oil Report,
"Inside Mosul: May 17, 2017," 5/17/17
Al Maalomah, "The
popular crowd foiled an attack by criminals in Hadari south of Mosul,"
5/17/17
- “Security forces adopt a new plan to liberate the rest
of Mosul,” 5/17/17
Mostafa, Mohammed, "IS
suicide bombers attack Iraqi troops in western Mosul district," Iraqi
News, 5/17/17
- "Mobilization forces
complete 70% of operations to clear IS hideouts west of Mosul," Iraqi
News, 5/17/17
Mostafa, Nehal, “More than 30 IS militants killed in two
days as troops invade western Mosul districts,” Iraqi News, 5/17/17
Neuhof, Florian, “ISIL resorts to using poison gas to
slow Iraq troops in Mosul,” The National, 5/17/17
Rasheed, Ahmed,
"Islamic State mining Mosul to stop families fleeing as Iraqi forces
advance," Reuters, 5/17/17
Al Taghier TV, "One of
the members of the Counter Terrorism Force prevents a car bomb explosion from
reaching his comrades in the Rifai neighborhood of West Mosul," 5/17/17
Walid, Mohamed and Shaker,
Serhad, "Attacks, airstrike kill dozens in Iraq's Mosul," Anadolu
Agency, 5/17/17
World Food Programme, “Iraq: Situation Update – Mosul
Operation 16 May 2017,” 5/16/17
Xinhua, “Iraqi forces recapture new neighborhood in
western Mosul,” 5/18/17
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