Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, left, speaks during a bilateral meeting at the Lotte New York Palace Hotel in New York, on September 19 as President Obama, Vice President Biden, U.S. United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power, and others look on.
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Obama said he and Abadi had focused on ensuring that food, water and shelter are available for those displaced and that Mosul can be quickly rebuilt, so that desperate residents don’t turn to “extremist ideologies” for relief and allow the Islamic State group to return.
After meeting with Abadi in NY on Monday, U.S. President Barack Obama said he hoped for progress by the end of the year on Mosul. In neighboring Syria, the civil war continues to plague the fight against the Islamic State, but in Iraq, the extremists have lost half the territory they once held, according to the U.S.
With President Barack Obama aboard, Air Force One rolls along a taxiway after arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, Sunday, Sept. 18, 2016.
Iraq’s security situation has deteriorated markedly since mid-2014, when Daesh captured Mosul – the country’s second largest city – along with vast swathes of territory in the country’s northern and western regions.
Iraqi troops, backed by local police and Sunni Muslim tribal fighters, took up positions along five axes on Tuesday and advanced through five villages but by midday were still around 13 km from the town center, said the mayor and a source in the Salahuddin Operations Command, which oversees military operations in the area.
Equally daunting to military planners is the prospect that the battle could displace some 1 million people.
Abadi echoed Obama’s comments about a time frame for the long-anticipated Mosul operation.
Obama’s speech is always a focal point of the annual U.N. General Assembly.
But, speaking ahead of talks with al-Abadi, he warned: “This is going to be hard, this is going to be challenging”. The Democratic presidential nominee was holding her own program of meetings with foreign leaders attending the United Nations summit as she works to portray herself as more presidential than Republican Donald Trump.
The defeat exposed deep flaws in Iraq’s military, but since then a US -led coalition has sent military advisors and attack jets to bolster the government side. Obama also discussed climate change, the global refugee crisis and terrorism during a phone call with Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta.
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 forces have left some pockets of IS jihadists on the way however – such as in Hawijah or in the Hamreen mountains – and priority was given to Qayyarah, a town farther north which will be used as a launchpad for an offensive on Mosul.
The push to take Shirqat is backed by paramilitary troops, mostly Shiite militiamen. The group also controls the city of Tel Afar, west of Mosul towards the Syrian border.
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Obama said once the Mosul operation was finished, it would be necessary to rebuild the city to prevent militants and extremists from returning.
