The last assault
on Mosul finally began. The Army’s 9th, 15th, and 16th
Divisions attacked the Shifa neighborhood. The Federal Police and Rapid
Reaction Division went into Zinjali, while the Golden Division attacked the
first Saha district. The Third Bridge across the Tigris River was reached, and
the Mosul
Hotel and Tamuz 17 were both
taken. This was the fourth time the latter was declared freed. A brigade and a
regimental commander in the 16th Division were killed
in the day’s fighting. General Abdul Ghani al-Asadi of the Golden Division
appeared on television stating
that the Islamic State had lost control of the situation. On the other hand, General
Haider Fadhil also of the Golden Division said
that resistance had not lessoned, and remained high. Other Iraqi and American
officers thought
this would be the toughest part of the entire operation. IS only controls roughly
five square miles of territory along the Tigris, but they have put up a
determined defense especially in the Old City, which held up the police for months.
The layout of the city in this area is especially dense and many streets are
too narrow for vehicles or tanks to traverse. There have been several reports
of the Iraqi forces having to fight floor to floor inside buildings. The
insurgents also have an extensive tunnel network and have dug holes in walls to
allow them to fire and maneuver without exposing themselves to air strikes.
It’s likely that this final phase will take a few weeks to conclude.
At a Pentagon briefing on May 19 U.S. Defense Secretary Jim
Mattis claimed
that the Mosul battle was part of a new strategy. Instead of letting IS
fighters escape the Iraqis had surrounded the entire city, and were determined
to kill all the IS members inside. This would reduce the threat they posed not
only to Iraq, but the region as many foreign fighters could return to their
home countries and spread chaos. The major problem with the secretary’s
argument was that the Iraqis gave ample warning as to when the Mosul offensive
would start allowing the leadership to flee. When the battle started in October
it took months to cut off the city, so there was additional time for insurgent
cadres to move on to other areas of Iraq and Syria. While many IS members went
down fighting, a sizeable number probably made it out.
The Hashd were making more progress in western Mosul, while
causing more controversy. The Hashd captured
three more villages around Baaj. Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) official
Pasha Khalaf told the Daily
Beast that the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Sinjar was working with
Tehran to allow the Hashd to create a land bridge from Iran across Iraq to
Syria to allow men and materials to flow to the government of Bashar al-Assad.
A member of the Sinjar council and the town’s mayor responded
to Asaib Ahl Al-Haq spokesman Jawad al-Talabawi who said that the Hashd would
enter the village by saying they were not needed. The Hashd also held a ceremony to turn
over the town of Kocho to Yazidis. They said they would remain there to protect
the locals. This was a symbolic event as the village was the site of an IS
massacre of Yazidis, and the Kurds had not freed it when they moved back into
west Ninewa. As soon as the Hashd entered the Sinjar district they started a
war of words with the KDP who are struggling to maintain control of the area
against the incursions of the PKK and the desire of some Yazidis to break the
yoke of Kurdish hegemony. The Hashd are entering this fray because many of them
are opposed to the Kurds’ independence moves, alliance with Turkey, and believe
they assisted IS sympathizers. Despite the escalating verbal attacks upon each
other, National Security Professor Hussein al-Allawi of Al-Nahrain University
told Al
Monitor he didn’t think that would escalate to an armed confrontation.
Allawi believed a deal was brokered in mid-May when National Security Adviser
Falah Fayad visited President Massoud Barzani. That’s yet to be seen, and the
Hashd continue to provoke the Kurds.
General Shaban Nasiri of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard (IRGC)
was killed
during the day. He was advising the Hashd in the Baaj area, was an Iran-Iraq
War veteran, helped found the Badr Brigade during that time, and worked in
Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon. Many of the Hashd units involved in the operation are
pro-Iranian, so there should be no surprise that there were Iranian elements
accompanying them. This was the first time an Iranian was acknowledged to have
died in the Mosul operation, and the second
IRGC general to die in the larger war against the Islamic State in Iraq.
Ninewa police chief General Wathiq al-Hamdani banned the
niqab, because IS was using it in Mosul. The niqab is a garment that covers the
entire female body except for the hands and eyes. IS members have been using it
to disguise themselves and infiltrate areas of east Mosul.
The Toronto
Star was the latest paper to write an article based upon the work of Ali
Arkady who exposed a unit of the Rapid Reaction Division (RRD) abusing IS
suspects during the Mosul campaign. The RRD released two
videos interviewing people Arkady mentioned who denied his report. The videos
however did not fully contradict him. For example, in the original Der Spiegel
article the RRD unit was interrogating a man, while an officer said he was
going to rape a woman. In the RRD video the woman claimed that didn’t happen.
In the Der Spiegel article however, the police officer said he didn’t force
himself upon the woman either as she was on her period. This was captured on a
video clip included in the Toronto Star as well. Iraqis on social media have
been up in arms about the articles as well, yet few appeared to have read any
of them. Human Rights Watch is launching an investigation into the matter, and
may shed more light on exactly what happened.
Finally, Vice President Nouri al-Maliki was using
Mosul to future his political agenda. He claimed that the Islamic State was
part of an American plot against Iraq. He continued that President Obama
planned the fall of Mosul during meetings in Kurdistan. Since losing the
premiership Maliki has thrown in his lot with Iran. These comments mirrored
many talking points made by Tehran and its allies within Iraq.
SOURCES
Abdul-Zahra, Qassim, “Iraq says Iranian commander killed
fighting IS,” Associated Press, 5/27/17
Al Alam, "Iraqi Forces Completely Liberate
Mosul's July 17 Neighborhood after Heavy Clashes," 5/27/17
Baghdad Post, “Iraqi Federal Police approach Old City of
Mosul,” 5/27/17
Baghdad Post, "Iraqi forces recapture 3 new
districts in Mosul's right bank," 5/13/17
Bas News, “Local
Officials Oppose Hashd’s Intentions to Enter Sinjar,” 5/27/17
BBC, “Iraq starts
new assault on Islamic State group in Mosul,” 5/27/17
Chmaytelli, Maher
and Coles, Isabel, “Iraqi forces launch operation to seize last Islamic State
enclave in Mosul,” Reuters, 5/27/17
Dehghanpisheh, Babak, “Senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard
killed fighting Islamic State in Iraq: Tasnim,” Reuters, 5/27/17
George, Susannah,
“Mosul siege extends IS fight in Iraq, puts civilians at risk,” Associated
Press, 5/27/17
Gibbons-Neff, Thomas
and Salim, Mustafa, “U.S. aided Iraqi forces begin assault on last ISIS
strongholds in western Mosul,” Washington Post, 5/27/17
Iraq Newspaper, "Iraqi Newspaper Reporter: Commander of
Third Brigade and Commander of First Regiment of the 16th Division in Mosul
Killed," 5/27/17
- “Iraqi Newspaper
Reporter: Freed Mosul Hotel and a Street Leading To The Old City of Mosul,”
5/27/17
Al Jazeera, “Iraqi troops push for last ISIL holdouts in
Mosul,” 5/27/17
Al Mada, “3 units of
the joint forces began the last battle of the Old City of Mosul,” 5/27/17
- “The popular crowd
frees 3 villages and captures US anti-tank missiles,” 5/27/17
Malazada, Ibrahim,
“Disputes over Iraq’s Yazidi areas lead to fears of PMU-peshmerga clash,” Al
Monitor, 5/26/17
Mostafa, Mohamed, “Security kill 29 IS militants, set free
24 civilians west of Mosul,” Iraqi News, 5/27/17
- “UPDATED: 2 army officers dead, Police kill 14 IS
militants during Mosul’s Old City invasion,” Iraqi News, 5/27/17
Mousa, Ahmad with
Karim, Ammar, “Iraq forces launch broad attack on IS holdouts in Mosul,” Agence
France Presse, 5/27/17
Neuhof, Florian,
“Forces Fighting ISIS Turning on Each Other as Iran Opens Land Corridor to
Syria,” Daily Beast, 5/25/17
New Sabah, "Freed Iqtisadin and Tamuz 17 in
West Mosul," 5/17/17
Potter, Mitch,
Shephard, Michelle and Campion-Smith, Bruce, “Bound. Tortured. Killed.” Toronto
Star, 5/27/17
Press TV, "Iraqi govt. forces retake
control of two key districts in west Mosul," 5/20/17
Al Rafidain, “Nouri
Al-Maliki: The Islamic State Is An American Conspiracy,” 5/26/17
Rojkan, Mira, “Iraqi
Commander Rejects Report on Civilian Abuse by Army,” Bas News, 5/26/17
Rudaw, “The death of
a senior leader in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard west of Mosul,” 5/27/17
- “Hashd says it
handed over Kocho village to Yezidis, vows to remain,” 5/27/17
- "Iraqi police ban niqab in liberated
areas of Mosul," 5/27/17
- “Record number of civilians flee Mosul since
October, NGO,” 5/27/17
Shafaaq News, “Abdul
Ghani al-Asadi: the storming of the rest of West Mosul on three axes and the
collapse of the ranks of Daesh,” 5/27/17
Al Sumaria, “The
popular crowd freed two villages north of Al-Baaj district,” 5/27/17
Xinhua, “Iraqi forces push into 3 neighborhoods in western
Mosul,” 5/27/17
2 comments:
Initially the west of Mosul was left open to allow fighters to escape in the direction of the Syrian border (direction Tal Afar), a fast open area where they could be picked off with ease by PMF who would show no mercy. I assume the 1000 that dug in in the old city center are hardcore fanatics (probably a large number of FTF) and should by no means be allowed to escape and return back or flee to Syria.
Actually the Hashd didn't cut off the western route to Syria from Mosul until recently so if any IS wanted to get out they had plenty of time to do so.
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