No fighting has been reported in Mosul for the last few days
but the Islamic State’s cells are still active. A car
bomb went off in the western neighborhood of Bab al-Sinjar that left four
dead and three wounded. These types of terrorist attacks will be the security
challenge in the city for the coming weeks and months as IS attempts to scare
the public and show that it is still active.
In the Maidan
area of the Old City in west Mosul a mass grave was
discovered with 60 bodies.
Around 40 of them
were former policemen. All of them had been killed by the Islamic State with
some showing
signs of torture and being shot in the head. 3,078 executions by the militants
were
recorded during
the battle for the city. They singled out members of the security forces fearing
that they might be
working with the government.
A former general claimed that 120,000 IS
fighters were killed and wounded in the Mosul campaign. General Wafiq
al-Samarraie took the ISF’s claim that 30,000 insurgents died in the battle,
and extrapolated that to 90,000 wounded for a total of 120,000. He went on to
denigrate America’s estimate that there were only 3,000-5,000 IS. On July 19,
the Joint Operations Command first reported that 30,000 fatality figure to the
press. That was 5,000 more than General Abdul Amir Yarallah head of Ninewa We
Are Coming command talked about on July
16. All of these were exaggerations, and part of the regular death
inflation the Iraqis take part in after fighting concludes. The ISF likes to
increase the numbers to make their victories appear more dramatic. In
comparison, Iraqi Defense Minister predicted
that there were only 9,400 IS elements dead and alive in Mosul in January 2017.
To show how ridiculous General Samarraie’s claim was one only has to ask what
happened to the 90,000 injured IS fighters. Did they escape to Tal Afar? Did
they hide amongst the displaced? If either were true it would show how bad the
Iraqi forces were at securing Mosul during and after the battle.
In the Sinjar district in west Ninewa another mass grave
was uncovered. Six sites with bodies of Yazidis killed by the IS were found in
areas that the Hashd freed a few weeks ago. When IS seized the district in the
fall of 2014 it systematically attempted to wipe out the population by
splitting the men from the women, executing the former and selling and
enslaving the latter. The results of this genocide are still turning up in
Sinjar.
The Iraqi forces are waiting for the orders to attack Tal
Afar, while the air force is already carrying out operations. A Defense
Ministry spokesman said
that the operation had begun. Air strikes were underway, while the ground
forces were waiting for
their assault. Hashd spokesman Ahmed al-Assadi stated
that they would participate in the operation. The Hashd surrounded the village
months ago, but were not allowed to enter due to complaints from Turkey. Prime
Minsiter Haider Abadi later claimed he gave the order to take the town, but the
Hashd refused. The Hashd countered that the premier did not want them in Tal
Afar, and sent them to the Syrian border instead. The Hashd are likely to be
still be kept out and just do perimeter duties, while the army and police will be
responsible for the town itself.
SOURCES
Baghdad Post, “Iraqi army starts operations to retake ISIS-held Tal
Afar,” 7/24/17
- “Over 25,000 ISIS
terrorists killed in battle for Mosul,” 7/16/17
Bas News, “Mass Grave Containing 60 Victims Found in Mosul,” 7/24/17
- “Six Mass Graves of Yezidis Found in Southern Sinjar,” 7/24/17
Buratha News, “Wafik
al-Samarraie: Iraqi forces killed and wounded 120 thousand Daesh in Mosul and
America expected only 5,000,” 7/25/17
Dolamari, Mewan, “Hashd al-Shaabi slams Turkey, says will participate
in Tal Afar operation,” Kurdistan 24, 7/24/17
International Organization for Migration, “Displacement
Tracking Matrix Emergency Tracking Mosul Operations Data Snapshot: 23 July
2017,” 7/23/17
Iraq Newspaper,
“Iraqi Newspaper Reporter: After Abadi denied casualty figures the joint
operations attached the number of victims in the battle of Mosul,” 7/19/17
Malik, Hamdi, “With IS on the way out, Iraqi power struggles
pose major threat,” Al Monitor, 7/23/17
Mostafa, Nehal, "Policemen, among others, killed and injured in
blast, western Mosul," Iraqi News, 7/24/17
New Sabah, “Military
units waiting for zero hour to break into the Tal Afar district to free it from
Daash,” 7/24/17
Omar, Oumayma, “The
onerous cost of rebuilding the city of Mosul,” The Arab Weekly, 7/24/17
UN High Commissioner for Refugees, “Iraq Situation: UNHCR Flash Update
– 24 July 2017,” 7/24/17
No comments:
Post a Comment