Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi said in an televised message from NY, where he attended the United Nations General Assembly that forces are also moving to retake two areas in the western province of Anbar.
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Iraq’s “Golden Division” counter-extremism forces train in Baghdad as they preparare for an operation to retake Mosul.
He said the extremist group has embedded itself “deeply” in Mosul but that the USA and its partners are confident they can be in a position to move forward in Mosul “fairly rapidly”.
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Speaking to reporters after a trip to Europe, Marine Corps Gen. Joe Dunford listed recent gains leading up to the eventual battle to retake the key northern city.
USA and Iraqi officials have said the push on Mosul could begin in October, though there are concerns that not enough planning has been done for how to manage Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, if and when ISIS is kicked out.
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 US -led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Earlier this month, it was reported that IS militants in Mosul stitched four people’s mouths shut with metal wire because they were involved in a discussion about military successes against IS in the Nineveh Plains.
The Pentagon estimates 3,000 to 4,500 IS fighters are in Mosul.
Sherqat is “in close proximity to their supply lines”, Dorrian said, referring to routes by which Iraqi forces move troops and material for operations against IS. More than two years later, it is still under Islamic State control.
The northern Iraqi city, once the county’s second-largest with more than two million people, has been occupied by the Islamic State for more than two years.
According to unnamed United States defense officials quoted by CNN, “the American forces operating there will mainly provide logistics, supplies and support for the Iraqi offensive on Mosul”. “I can see Daesh digging tunnels everywhere and covering the entrances with sewage covers”.
“The noose is gradually tightening around Mosul”, he said. House-to-house searches have increased over the last two months, as the militants pursue local fighters who pledged allegiance to the group but appear to have defected.
The spokesman for the Joint-Operation Command, Yahya Rasool, said that special counter-terrorist troops and Sunni combatants from the Hashed al-Ashaeri (Tribal Mobilization) were decisive in the operation, supported by the US-led worldwide coalition. Abadi this week called on Mosul residents to stand up to Islamic State ahead of the military offensive.
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Abadi added that, “The Council of Ministers today approved a Japanese loan to finance a number of projects in the southern provinces”, pointing at the same time that “there is a plan to restore stability and provide services in the liberated areas”. “This will ease the work of the security forces and reduce their casualties”.
