The Iraqi Forces (ISF) and Hashd were both preparing for the
next phase of the Mosul campaign. The Joint Operations Command announced that Federal Police
units were moving into central Mosul to prepare to cross the Tigris and attack the
west. The Diyala battalion of the Golden Division arrived
in the city, and the 9th Division was setting up its heavy weapons. The
Hashd continued
to talk about how important the 6th phase of their operations will
be, which includes participating in the new assault on Mosul. The Al Abbas
Division of the Hashd is supposed to take part, but it’s not clear in what
capacity. The ISF are still resting and re-supplying after three months of fighting.
In a few more days they will likely go back into action. The Hashd in Tal Afar
district have been holding ground since November. As more time has passed, and
they have less to do they have been issuing more boisterous propaganda
releases. Baghdad changed its policy and decided that they will be allowed to
take the town, despite a deal with Turkey, because it doesn’t have any army of
police units to spare because of Mosul. That means they will be back in action
soon.
There were more articles about the arrest warrant issued for
former Ninewa Governor Atheel Nujafi. Al
Mada noted that the head of the Ninewa We Are Coming command General Abdul
Yarallah said that Nujafi’s Hashd al-Watani or Ninewa Guards would help secure
and clear east Mosul, and then 24 hours later said that they would be excluded
because of the warrant. That was more evidence that the ISF were not behind
this, but rather politicians were. Nujafi has many opponents, and his actions
after east Mosul were freed were not helping. He was walking through the city
like he freed it and claimed that his Hashd were going to be given 30
neighborhoods to control. That’s since been retracted, and the Hashd al-Watani has
been told to leave the city. Nujafi was hoping that the Mosul operation would
help him return to power, but that plan has been cut short due to this new
controversy.
The ISF has captured thousands of Islamic State documents.
Some of those have been released to the press, specifically ones showing that
foreign members were trying to leave Mosul by claiming a variety of sicknesses.
It was not clear whether these were fighters or just part of the group’s
bureaucracy. The foreign fighters were said to be the last ones standing in east
Mosul, while many of the Iraqi members fled to the west. The papers do show
problems within the group, but they are also part of the propaganda the Iraqi
government is pushing that IS is a broken force.
The Islamic State on the other hand is still showing
persistence. For the third or fourth time IS fighters launched
a river attack across the Tigris upon an east Mosul neighborhood on January 28.
January 29 they attacked the Fasiliya neighborhood, and another small force was
found trying to infiltrate the east as well. These were all turned back. It has
continued mortar, rocket, and drone attacks on liberated areas of the city as
well. It assaulted three towns to the south and west of Mosul as well. One of
those was on Hamam
al-Alil deep in liberated territory showing IS cells are still active
there.
More evidence of the group’s atrocities was also discovered.
A grave
with 27 bodies of Turkmen was discovered in Mosul’s Rashidiya area in the
northeast. Every time an area is liberated from the insurgents evidence of
massacres are usually revealed.
Aid agencies had both good and bad news about the thousands
of displaced in Ninewa. As of January 26 the International Organization for
Migration counted
159,006 people registered with the government and NGOs. The Iraqi Red Crescent reported
that 10,125 people had left the Khazir and Hasan al-Sham camps to return to
Mosul. At the same time, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said
that authorities were blocking aid groups access to the camps they run. Also
the problem of detaining male members of families for suspecting ties to IS is continuing,
and that some of them have been tortured as a result. Another issue is that 46%
of the displaced from Mosul are missing their documents like birth and marriage
certificates and IDs. The last is very important because people cannot get
assistance from the government like food rations and cash payouts for being
displaced without their identification.
SOURCES
Adel,
Loaa, "Army forces find mass grave containing remains of 27 Turkmens near
Mosul," 1/29/17
International Organization for Migration, “Displacement
Tracking Matrix Emergency Tracking Mosul Operations Data Snapshot: 26 January
2017,” 1/29/17
Iraq
Oil Report, "Inside Mosul: Jan. 28, 2017," 1/29/17
-
"Inside Mosul: Jan. 29, 2017," 1/29/17
Iraqi Red Crescent Society, “More than 10 thousand people
return to their homes within last weak inside Mosul,” 1/29/17
Al
Maalomah, "Federal Police destroyed three car bombs at the entrance to the
right bank of Mosul," 1/29/17
Al Mada, “Nineveh Guard: We received orders from al-Abadi to
participate in the liberation battles,” 1/29/17
Al Masalah, “Popular crowd: the sixth stage of the Mosul
operation will end the existence of Daesh,” 1/29/17
Mostafa, Mohamed, “Documents: IS militants demand
repatriation citing funny illnesses,” Iraqi News, 1/29/17
-
"Iraqi police head to western Mosul, child, 3 militants killed by
drones," Iraqi News, 1/29/17
-
"Police kill 9 IS militants south of Mosul, IS kill 4 PMU fighters in
west," Iraqi News, 1/29/17
New Sabah, “Activating arrest warrant in the event of
Nujafi’s presence in Mosul,” 1/29/17
- “Federal Police advancing towards the left bank of Mosul
in preparation for storming it,” 1/29/17
Shafaaq
News, "Killing a man and injuring his wife and three children in Daesh
pounding of East Mosul," 1/29/17
UN High Commissioner for Refugees, “Mosul Weekly Protection
Update, 21-27 January 2017,” 1/27/17
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