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| (Rudaw) |
The Golden Division continued to make slow but steady
progress in east Mosul. Adil,
Tamim, and Alam
for the second time were freed. Three other areas were also recaptured from the
Islamic State. There was continued fighting in Noor, that was freed two days ago,
and Wahda, which witnessed the ambush
of elements of the 9th Division a few days ago.
The rest of the Iraqi forces were mostly clearing
areas. The Federal Police in the southwest, the 9th Division in the
southeast, and the Hashd in the west were all going through buildings and roads
looking for Islamic State fighters and IEDs to defuse. The Iraqi forces just
said they had cleared the entire southern front, but that apparently was
another exaggeration. Hunting down unexploded ordinance and searching for IS
members has been one of the reasons why the Mosul campaign outside of the
eastern front has been stalled for so long.
The taking of Tal Afar appears up in the air as well. The
Hashd reached the district in the middle of November. Those forces originally
said they would take the town, but due to political objections Baghdad made an
agreement with Turkey to have the army and Federal police do it instead. That
has not happened yet. In the meantime members of the Iraqi Turkmen Front travelled
to Turkey and met with President Recep Erdogan and jointly called for a Turkmen
force to free the town. The Turkmen Front has been an ally of Ankara for years
now, and Erdogan has used it to justify its intervention in Iraq’s domestic
politics. The party no longer holds as much sway as it once did because the
sectarian war split the community between Sunnis and Shiites and armed groups
moved into the ascendency. If a Shiite Turkmen force were to move into Tal Afar
for example, it would garner strong objections from the Front and its Turkish sponsors.
Overall, the meeting and statement was just another attempt by Erdogan to put
pressure on Baghdad and exert Turkey’s influence in Ninewa.
Several Iraqi intelligence officers spoke with the Associated
Press. They told AP they wanted a slower approach to taking Mosul to allow
for targeted strikes to take out IS leaders. Instead the pace was much quicker
and the officers complained that most top ranking IS members got out of the
city in October. More importantly the intelligence agents said that Iraq had
plans to attack IS in Syria after the insurgents were defeated in Iraq.
Finally, the number of displaced took a slight dip. The
International Organization for Migration reported
that there were 82,698 displaced in Ninewa, down from 83,988 the day before. It
said the reason for the decline was a more thorough vetting of those
registered. Still even with the lower figure the number of people fleeing their
homes has taken another decided jump. On December 2 there were 77,826 displaced
meaning there has been a 4,872 increase in just a week’s time. More people
continue to leave the battle zone. For example, the 16th Division noted
that around 200 families evacuated the Hadbaa neighborhood in the north for the
Iraqi lines. As the ISF pushes further into Mosul more people are likely to
join the displaced.
SOURCES
AIN, “Results of operations Ninewa We Are Coming on Friday,”
12/9/16
- "Urgent freed neighborhoods of Adil, Alam and Tamim on the
left coast of the city," 12/9/16
Al Alam, "VIDEO: 3 Districts Near Mosul Freed, Fierce Clashes
in Al Salam District," 12/9/16
Bas News, "Iraqi Forces Retake Two More Neighborhoods Eastern
Mosul," 12/6/16
eKurd, “Iraqi Kurdistan News in brief – December 9, 2016,”
12/9/16
Hendawi, Hamza and Abdul-Zahra, Qassim, “Iraq Prepares for
New Fight Against Post-Mosul IS,” Associated Press, 12/9/16
International Organization for Migration, “Displacement
Tracking Matrix Emergency Tracking Factsheet 6# - Mosul Operations From 17
October To 8 December,” 12/8/16
Iraq Oil Report, "Inside Mosul, Nov. 21, 2016," 11/21/16
Al Mada, “Evacuation of 200 families from central Mosul
while security forces arrested Daesh members hiding amongst them,” 12/9/16
Mostafa, Mohamed, "Iraqi forces partially retake al-Aalam
district at eastern Mosul," Iraqi News, 12/6/16
- "Update: Iraqi troops liberate 28 districts in eastern
Mosul," Iraqi News, 12/9/16
NINA, "Anti-Terrorism Forces Storm 3 Residential
Neighborhoods In Mosul, kill 16 Terrorists," 11/30/16
- "Iraqi forces killed a suicide bomber from Daesh and
stormed three new residential neighborhoods east of Mosul," 12/3/16
Rudaw, "ISIS deploy car bombs against advancing Iraqi forces
in eastern Mosul," 12/9/16
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