U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday that the battle against the Islamic State militant group in Mosul would be challenging but he was confident it would move forward rapidly.
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Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi made the announcement in a televised address on Tuesday in NY, where he is to attend the latest summit of the United Nations General Assembly.
Shabak fighters undergo training before the upcoming battle to recapture Mosul in Diyala province, Iraq September 19, 2016.
“These operations are the preparation for getting rid of Daesh from every inch of Iraqi land and, God willing, the end of these operations will be the liberation of Mosul”, he said, using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State. Still, Obama said he and Abadi were confident that Iraq’s military and the US -led coalition could make progress in Mosul “fairly rapidly”, adding that he was hoping for progress by year-end. The U.S. and its partners hope a successful Mosul offensive will set the stage for eventually ousting the group from Raqqa, the largest IS-held city in Syria and the de facto capital of the group’s self-declared caliphate. Iraqi commanders have indicated an operation to dislodge the group from the country’s second-largest city could begin by late October. There is a gap in the moat on the western approach to the city, so fighters could slip out through the desert and into Syria to regroup if they ultimately decide to surrender Mosul. The source said two villages had also been freed in Anbar Province’s Haditha district.
He said the operation must drive out the IS group but also reassure the populace so that the “extremist ideology born out of desperation will not return”.
USA forces will be ready within weeks to help Iraqi forces in their battle to retake Mosul from ISIS, according to Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The city, Iraq’s second-largest, fell to Islamic State in 2014 after Iraq’s army and police dropped their weapons and fled, despite billions of dollars in aid since a US -led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Yet military experts have warned that retaking Mosul is an incredible arduous task that plays to the extremist group’s advantages, including its ability to embed among civilians.
“We’ve always believed that progress on the battlefield needs to be accompanied by continued political progress among Iraq’s different communities”, Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser, said ahead of the meeting scheduled for Monday.
Shirqat has been surrounded by Iraqi troops and Iranian-backed Shi’ite Muslim militias allied to the government.
Lise Grande, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, on Monday appealed for more funding to help people displaced by the conflict.
The city fell to the jihadists in 2014 after Iraq’s army and police dropped their weapons and fled, despite having received billions of dollars in aid since a USA -led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.
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Obama also spoke with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta by phone in lieu of a face-to-face meeting.
