In a military communique broadcast on public TV, army commanders said they had started the first phase of Operation Fatah to liberate Mosul in the northern province of Nineveh.
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A Palestinian-American member of the Islamic State jihadist group with USA citizenship turned himself in to the Kurdish peshmerga forces in northern Iraq on Monday, a senior military officer said.Kurdish officials named the man as Mohamad Jamal Amin from Virginia and said that he was nearly killed by peshmerga fighters who feared that he was an approaching suicide bomber.
Iraqi officials say they will retake Mosul this year but, in private, many question whether the army, which partially collapsed when Islamic State overran a third of the country in June 2014, will be ready in time.
U.S. Marines with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit’s Fire Base Bell, Iraq, fire an M777A2 Howitzer at an Islamic State infiltration route March 18, 2016.
Those efforts, the colonel said, include clearing operations in a wider effort to eliminate ISIL fighters, deny access to resources and cut off the terrorists’ lines of communication in preparation for the liberation of Mosul. The official was not authorized to discuss the operation publicly and requested anonymity.
The seething Sunni discontentment over the growing influence of the Kurds and Shia in Iraq has always been credited with IS’s ability to seize and hold a key city like Mosul.
In the past weeks, Iraq and the U.S.-led collation have been positioning forces within an hour’s drive of Mosul in anticipation of a fight to retake the city.
The general said he has been consulting with Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland, commander of Operation Inherent Resolve, and his commanders on the ground regularly about what is needed.
Fewer than 200 Marines have deployed to the fire base, located near the northern Iraqi town of Makhmur, to protect US advisers and Iraqis who are stationed at a nearby Iraqi military base.
On Saturday, the militants fired two rockets at the base, killing a U.S. Marine and wounding several others.
Their movement into Iraq comes as the Iraqi forces formally begin their push to retake Mosul.
In the meantime, US-led Coalition air raids have been hitting Islamic State positions in Mosul, often causing civilian casualties.
On Jan. 21, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Iraq’s prime minister in Davos, Switzerland, and handed him a personal note from President Barack Obama pleading for urgent action.
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Yet the villages weren’t exactly a high priority for ISIS to defend, and their focus appears to be split between defending Mosul itself and pressing an offensive against more valuable Iraqi territory around Kirkuk.
