ISIS resists incursion into Mosul
According to the Washington Post, ISIS resistance has stalled the Iraqis’ advance into Mosul.
The intense fight for hamlets some 30 miles from the city suggested that the militants could fight for every inch outside the city, but also that they are unlikely to be able to hold on in the face of a coordinated advance and close air support from a U.S.-led coalition.
Residents who have recently fled the area and Iraqi officials with contacts inside Mosul say the Islamic State has been digging in for a fight, erecting concrete barricades and filling trenches full of oil that can be set on fire to slow advancing forces. The Islamic State claimed to have carried out 12 suicide attacks on the first day of the offensive, according to its affiliated news agency, Amaq. Jabbar Yawar, a spokesman for Kurdish peshmerga forces, said eight Kurdish soldiers were killed Monday and 16 injured.
The struggle for Mosul — which involves U.S. air power and an array of Iraqi ground forces — is the largest and most complex so far in the battle against Islamic State militants. It has brought an unprecedented level of military cooperation between Baghdad and the Kurdistan regional government in northern city of Irbil, which have long feuded over oil and land. But some small cracks in that alliance appeared Tuesday, as Kurdish and Iraqi commanders traded blame for delays in some operations in the east.
Of course, the coalition has been telegraphing the assault every day for the past month, so it’s not like the attack is unexpected. When ISIS starts losing in Syria and Iraq, they start attacks elsewhere. Turkish police killed a suicide bomber in Ankara yesterday;
Police tracked the Islamic State suspect to the ninth floor of a building on Ankara’s outskirts, where he was killed in a gunfight around 3 a.m. after opening fire in response to a call to surrender, the state-run Anadolu Agency said.
Diplomats are meeting in Paris to count the chickens before they’re hatched;
Foreign ministers from several Western and Middle Eastern countries will meet on Thursday to discuss how to restore peace and stability to Mosul after Islamic State has been routed from its Iraqi stronghold.
As the battle for Mosul entered its second day on Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, who will host the meeting in Paris, said: “We cannot wait. What happens after Mosul is liberated from Islamic State? We need an administration that establishes long-term stability.”
Category: Terror War
Maybe the foreign diplonuts ought to consider some good old-fashioned imperialism?
They’re also worried that ISIS may pop some crude chemical weapons in defense of Mosul. ‘US concerned ISIS may deploy chemical weapons as forces advance on Mosul’ http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/10/19/us-expects-islamic-state-to-use-chemical-weapons-as-forces-advance-on-mosul.html ‘U.S. officials expect the Islamic State to use crude chemical weapons as it tries to defend Mosul from an assault from Iraqi and Kurdish forces, though the terror group’s ability to develop such weapons is limited. ISIS has used mustard agent on “multiple” occasions against Kurdish Peshmerga forces, officials say, adding that nobody has been seriously hurt or killed so far. The effect has been fairly negligible, U.S. officials tell Fox News. Mustard agent gives victims symptoms similar to “poison ivy,” according to one official who said ISIS use of the chemical is more like a “weapon of mass disruption.” The officials said the threat of mustard agent attack is much less concerning than an attack or threat of using mustard gas. They said ISIS has not used mustard gas to date. One official told Reuters that U.S. forces have gathered ISIS shell fragments to test for chemical weapons. U.S. officials said in a previously undisclosed statement that it had confirmed the presence of a sulfur mustard agent on ISIS munitions on Oct. 5. “Given ISIL’s reprehensible behavior and flagrant disregard for international standards and norms, this event is not surprising,” a second U.S. official told Reuters. Officials don’t believe the Islamic State has been successful in fully developing chemical weapons with lethal effects. Conventional weapons were still the most dangerous threat as Iraqi and Kurdish forces advance. More than 100 U.S. troops are assisting Iraqi and Kurdish forces involved in the assault. They’re tasked with advising commanders and helping ensure the coalition’s air campaign hit the right targets, officials said. Meanwhile, as the fight for Mosul ramps up, the U.S. said it believes Islamic State fighters are using civilians as human shields as coalition forces move to the group’s stronghold in Mosul. Around 700,000 civilians are believed to be living in Mosul. President Barack Obama said there are plans in place for dealing with a potential humanitarian crisis as the offensive… Read more »
there’s a serious piece of BS in there that mustard gas is ineffective. Poorly made mustard gas may be ineffecive, but there used to be a boatload of WWI vets who knew well-made mustard as a decently serious threat. Anything that kills takes one guy out – something that incapacitates can take two or three guys out of action.
All those abandoned villages in the approaches to Mosul are rigged with explosives and tunnels.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-mosul-idUSKCN12J1OX?il=0
I wouldn’t take anything for granted over there, including safe passage through a small town. Send in the robots first. Let them get blown up.
Wow the Iraqi Army hasn’t pushed through? Who’d a thunk it?
And the coalition of the willing seems to be more like a coalition looking to place blame? I’m wondering how much longer the cooperation lasts between the disparate groups…probably not much longer than it takes to get the city back. Hopefully it can last at least that long.
Meantime, in Afghanistan, American advisers were killed in a hit near an ammo depot. The attacker also died.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-afghanistan-shooter-idUSKCN12J1KB
Mosul. Mosul. Mosul….Where did I hear…Got it! Mosul was the place an estimated 1000 ISIS fighters kicked some 60,000 Iraqi soldiers from a couple of years ago. Or are there two Mosuls? No, no, it’s the same place. Yeah, this will go well.
“Police tracked the Islamic State suspect to the ninth floor of a building on Ankara’s outskirts, where he was killed in a gunfight around 3 a.m. after opening fire in response to a call to surrender”.
“Call to surrender”. Really!!! They didn’t just kill the fucker? What? Were they going to read him his rights?
This does not look like a good plan when you know it’s a suicide bomber and ask him to surrender. I am sure the Iraqi Army is collectively shitting its pants about now, knowing the larger city of Mosul is yet to come.
In other news…from Washington, “Next Monday at 4AM we will begin an assault at the coordinates shown on this chart, with a US led Company size force advising a squad size Iraqi force. More information will be available as soon as it is released from the White House.”