There has been very slow progress since the last phase of
the Mosul Battle began four days ago. Zinjali has been the only neighborhood
where constant advances have been reported. A military school run by the
Islamic State was captured.
Army officers told Agence
France Presse that things were moving very slowly in Shifa where there are
several hospitals the Iraqi forces (ISF) were not trying to destroy. As usual,
the insurgents are relying upon small units to carry out hit and run tactics. They
fire upon the ISF and then move onto another position. During the day they
launched two counterattacks, one in Bab
al-Tob in the Old City, and another in Hawi
Kanisa, which is a liberated area of west Mosul. Iraqi officials and
members of the ISF were talking about expelling IS from the city in just a few
days. That is probably overly optimistic as most Iraqi announcements are.
Now that the Hashd have reached the Syrian border in western
Ninewa they are building defenses. They set about digging a trench starting
with the village of Um Greis that will run parallel to the border. They are
also still fighting
in Baaj and moving on the towns north of there.
In the Sinjar district the Hashd discovered more
mass graves. 10 were said to have been found spread across three towns. Some of
these were known before using satellite imagery, but they were out of reach due
to the IS presence. The insurgents swept into the district in August 2014, and
proceeded to round up Yazidi men and execute them in the thousands. These
graves are the legacy of those massacres.
The Peshmerga were still complaining about the Hashd
presence in Sinjar. The Peshmerga General Command claimed the Hashd being in
the district broke an agreement between Irbil and Baghdad brokered before the
Mosul campaign started. According to the Kurds the central government agreed to
only allow the Peshmerga into Kurdish areas during the operation. Prime
Minister Haider Abadi sent his National Security Adviser Falah Fayad to try to
work out the problem, but that has not stopped the almost daily charges leveled
at the Hashd.
The Wall Street Journal wrote
that Paris sent its Special Forces to Mosul to eliminate its nationals that
joined the Islamic State. The French government does not want IS members to
return to the country to cause chaos, and has already been the victim of
several terrorist attacks that IS took credit for. So far 30 “high level
targets” have been killed. In total, approximately 1,700 French are believed to
have joined the militants. It’s likely the French are doing the same thing in
Syria to try to get rid of as many of these people as possible on the
battlefield.
The Washington
Post wrote about the bulldozer drivers the ISF are employing in Mosul. They
play a crucial role in protecting the flanks of ISF units inside the city by
building berms, guarding against car bombs, as well as removing barricades the
insurgents have put up to block roadways. The bulldozers themselves come from
the United States that has provided 132 to the Iraqis since March 2015. The
vehicles and their drivers are favorite targets of IS because they know how
important they are. Losses have been high amongst them as a result. In April
for example, the Federal Police had to ask for volunteers because so many
operators had been killed. One of the militants’ favorite counter attacks is to
launch car bombs from short distances at ISF units. These bulldozers have
stopped scores of them from hitting their targets.
The government is slowly restoring services to the liberated
areas of Mosul. One of the most crucial is electricity. Baghdad recently decided to divert
approximately a third of Kirkuk province’s power supply to Mosul. Kirkuk is
obviously not happy about that as it will lead to shortages for its people.
There is little the governorate can do about this besides complain however as
the Electricity Ministry controls the power grid.
SOURCES
Bas News, “VIDEO:
PKK and Hashd Al-Shaabi Forces Meet on Iraq-Syria Border,” 5/30/17
Faraj, Salam with Valmary,
Simon, “Baghdad blasts kill 27 as Iraq forces battle IS in Mosul,” Agence
France Presse, 5/29/17
Gibbons-Neff, Thomas
and Salim, Mustafa, “Bulldozers have become more crucial – and more vulnerable
– in the fight against the Islamic State,” Washington Post, 5/30/17
Hennessy-Fiske,
Molly and Resol, Wael, “Iraqi military urges Mosul residents living in areas
under Islamic State control to flee,” Los Angeles Times, 5/29/17
Iraq Oil Report,
“Inside Mosul: May 30, 2017,” 5/30/17
Kassem, Ahmed and
Shaker, Serhad, “27 Iraqi security personnel killed in W.Mosul in 48hrs,”
Anadolu Agency, 5/30/17
Kittleson, Shelly,
“Iraqi forces advance from north ahead of ‘extremely violent’ fight,” Al
Monitor, 5/29/17
McKernan, Bethan,
“France is ‘hunting down its citizens who joined Isis’ without trial in Iraq,”
Independent, 5/30/17
Moore, Jack, “The
Final Push For Mosul: ‘Matter Of Time’ Until ISIS Flag Falls In Iraq’s Second
City,” Newsweek, 5/30/17
Mostafa, Mohamed, "Iraqi police take over
IS "commando school" in western Mosul, evacuate more civilians,"
Iraqi News, 5/30/17
- “Iraqi special forces set free 380 civilians from IS in
western Mosul district,” Iraqi News, 5/30/17
- “Mobilization
forces dig trenches along Syrian borders following successful advances,” Iraqi
News, 5/30/17
- "U.N. says 600.000 fled western Mosul, troops resume
cautious advances," Iraqi News, 5/30/17
Neuhof, Florian,
“Iraqi militias close to establishing Iran-Syria corridor,” The National,
5/30/17
New Sabah, “The joint
forces penetrate into four neighborhoods in Mosul city in preparation to
announce the final victory,” 5/30/17
Rudaw, “Kirkuk to
send electricity to war-torn Mosul at Baghdad’s behest,” 5/30/17
- “Peshmerga issue
warning to Shiite force,” 5/30/17
- “PM Abadi tells
Iraqi forces victory in Mosul will be ‘very soon,’” 5/30/17
- “Shiite forces
control mass grave sites in Yezidi areas of Shingal,” 5/30/17
Xinhua, “Iraqi forces in last stages of defeating IS in
western Mosul: PM,” 5/30/17
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