IRBIL/BAGHDAD: Iraqi Kurdish and Shiite forces agreed to coordinate movements after cutting off Mosul from the rest of the territory held by Daesh in western Iraq and Syria in support of a US-backed offensive to capture the city, US and Iraqi officials said on Thursday.
The agreement between the Kurds and the Shiite groups was reached at meeting on Wednesday between commanders of Kurdish Peshmerga forces deployed in Sinjar, west of Mosul, and Hadi Al-Amiri, the leader of the Iranian-backed Badr Organization.
Badr is the biggest component of the paramilitary coalition known as Popular Mobilization, or Hashid Shaabi, which deployed southwest of Mosul to complete the encirclement of Daesh’s last major city stronghold in Iraq.
Mosul was already ringed to the north, south and east by Iraqi government forces and the Peshmerga. Iraq’s US-trained Counter Terrorism Service units breached Daesh defenses in east Mosul at the end of October and are fighting to expand their foothold there.
The offensive started on Oct. 17 with air and ground support from a US-led coalition. It is turning into the most complex campaign in Iraq since the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, and empowered the nation’s Shiite majority.
Al-Amiri “came in order to coordinate with us,” said Mahma Xelil, the mayor of Sinjar, a city where Daesh committed its worst atrocities after taking over the region two years ago, killing and enslaving thousands from the Yazidi minority.
Controlling the road will make it easier for the Iraqi army to enter Tal Afar, Xelil said. “There must be cooperation between us to prevent Daesh from moving their equipment and their fighters,” he added, referring to Daesh.
Sinjar was recaptured a year ago by the Peshmerga, forces of the Kurdistan Regional Government of northern Iraq. It lies west of Tal Afar, another stronghold of Daesh, 60 km west of Mosul.
Another Iranian-backed group, Kata’ib Hezbollah also met with the Peshmerga, according to the TV station of the organization. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi on Thursday Popular Mobilization leaders on Thursday at the Tal Afar air base, just south of the town, state TV said.
“The joining of these forces greatly reduces the freedom of movement of Daesh insurgents in and out of Mosul,” said Air Force Col. John Dorrian, a Baghdad-based spokesman for the US-led coalition, referring to Daesh.
“They have already lost the effective ability to move in large numbers, but now this has been made more difficult for them.”
Another prominent leader of the Popular Mobilization units, Abu Mahdi Al-Mohandes, said on Wednesday the Shiite forces had linked up with the Peshmerga near Sinjar, completing the encirclement of a region that extends from Mosul and Tal Afar.
Mohandes said Popular Mobilization would try next to separate Mosul from Tal Afar, which lies on the route between Mosul and Raqqa, the main city of the militant group’s self-styled “caliphate” in Syria..
Thousands of civilians fled Tal Afar as Popular Mobilization closed in on the town, which is mostly populated by ethnic Turkmen.
The exodus is worrying humanitarian organizations as some of the civilians are heading into insurgent territory, where aid cannot be sent to them, provincial officials said on Wednesday.
Those fleeing Tal Afar are Sunnis, who are in a majority in Nineveh province in and around Mosul. Tal Afar also had a Shiite community, which fled in 2014 when Daesh swept through the region.
Abadi tried to allay fears of ethnic and sectarian killings in Tal Afar, saying any force sent to recapture it would reflect the city’s diversity.
The Iraqi military estimates there are 5,000 to 6,000 insurgents in Mosul facing a 100,000-strong coalition of Iraqi government units, Kurdish peshmerga and Shiite militias.
Mosul’s capture is seen as crucial toward dismantling the caliphate, and Daesh leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, believed to have withdrawn to a remote area near the Syrian border, has told his fighters there can be no retreat.
The militants are dug in among more than a million civilians as a tactic to hamper air strikes. They are moving around the city through tunnels, driving suicide car bombs into advancing troops and hitting them with sniper and mortar fire.
“We are controlling large parts of the eastern side,” the commander of the Counter Terrorism Service, Talib Shaghati, told reporters in Bartella, one of the first villages taken from Daesh after the offensive started. “One of the challenges we face ... is the presence of civilians.”
Scenes of panic
They came by the hundreds — men, women and children fleeing the battle for Mosul, some bloodied and crying out for help. So large was the crowd on the road that Iraqi troops initially ordered them back, worried that a Daesh suicide bomber could be hiding among them.
Mosul’s residents are fleeing in growing numbers as Iraqi forces push deeper into the country’s second largest city, and the battle-hardened extremists are fighting for every block, exploiting the dense urban terrain and using civilians as human shields.
On Wednesday the tide of displaced people reached the Samah district, where Iraqi medics treated dozens of wounded, including at least six soldiers.
At one point, four children and a man from the same family were rushed into the station, bleeding heavily as their relatives wailed in grief. A mortar round had slammed into the inner courtyard of their home. A few minutes after being brought to the aid station, a 16-month-old girl with a head wound was pronounced dead.
Then the main rush came — hundreds of civilians racing forward on a dirt road. The troops ordered them to halt, saying they had intelligence that Daesh might send suicide bombers disguised as civilians. One of the men raised his shirt to show that he wasn’t armed, saying he was desperate for food.
The agreement between the Kurds and the Shiite groups was reached at meeting on Wednesday between commanders of Kurdish Peshmerga forces deployed in Sinjar, west of Mosul, and Hadi Al-Amiri, the leader of the Iranian-backed Badr Organization.
Badr is the biggest component of the paramilitary coalition known as Popular Mobilization, or Hashid Shaabi, which deployed southwest of Mosul to complete the encirclement of Daesh’s last major city stronghold in Iraq.
Mosul was already ringed to the north, south and east by Iraqi government forces and the Peshmerga. Iraq’s US-trained Counter Terrorism Service units breached Daesh defenses in east Mosul at the end of October and are fighting to expand their foothold there.
The offensive started on Oct. 17 with air and ground support from a US-led coalition. It is turning into the most complex campaign in Iraq since the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, and empowered the nation’s Shiite majority.
Al-Amiri “came in order to coordinate with us,” said Mahma Xelil, the mayor of Sinjar, a city where Daesh committed its worst atrocities after taking over the region two years ago, killing and enslaving thousands from the Yazidi minority.
Controlling the road will make it easier for the Iraqi army to enter Tal Afar, Xelil said. “There must be cooperation between us to prevent Daesh from moving their equipment and their fighters,” he added, referring to Daesh.
Sinjar was recaptured a year ago by the Peshmerga, forces of the Kurdistan Regional Government of northern Iraq. It lies west of Tal Afar, another stronghold of Daesh, 60 km west of Mosul.
Another Iranian-backed group, Kata’ib Hezbollah also met with the Peshmerga, according to the TV station of the organization. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi on Thursday Popular Mobilization leaders on Thursday at the Tal Afar air base, just south of the town, state TV said.
“The joining of these forces greatly reduces the freedom of movement of Daesh insurgents in and out of Mosul,” said Air Force Col. John Dorrian, a Baghdad-based spokesman for the US-led coalition, referring to Daesh.
“They have already lost the effective ability to move in large numbers, but now this has been made more difficult for them.”
Another prominent leader of the Popular Mobilization units, Abu Mahdi Al-Mohandes, said on Wednesday the Shiite forces had linked up with the Peshmerga near Sinjar, completing the encirclement of a region that extends from Mosul and Tal Afar.
Mohandes said Popular Mobilization would try next to separate Mosul from Tal Afar, which lies on the route between Mosul and Raqqa, the main city of the militant group’s self-styled “caliphate” in Syria..
Thousands of civilians fled Tal Afar as Popular Mobilization closed in on the town, which is mostly populated by ethnic Turkmen.
The exodus is worrying humanitarian organizations as some of the civilians are heading into insurgent territory, where aid cannot be sent to them, provincial officials said on Wednesday.
Those fleeing Tal Afar are Sunnis, who are in a majority in Nineveh province in and around Mosul. Tal Afar also had a Shiite community, which fled in 2014 when Daesh swept through the region.
Abadi tried to allay fears of ethnic and sectarian killings in Tal Afar, saying any force sent to recapture it would reflect the city’s diversity.
The Iraqi military estimates there are 5,000 to 6,000 insurgents in Mosul facing a 100,000-strong coalition of Iraqi government units, Kurdish peshmerga and Shiite militias.
Mosul’s capture is seen as crucial toward dismantling the caliphate, and Daesh leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, believed to have withdrawn to a remote area near the Syrian border, has told his fighters there can be no retreat.
The militants are dug in among more than a million civilians as a tactic to hamper air strikes. They are moving around the city through tunnels, driving suicide car bombs into advancing troops and hitting them with sniper and mortar fire.
“We are controlling large parts of the eastern side,” the commander of the Counter Terrorism Service, Talib Shaghati, told reporters in Bartella, one of the first villages taken from Daesh after the offensive started. “One of the challenges we face ... is the presence of civilians.”
Scenes of panic
They came by the hundreds — men, women and children fleeing the battle for Mosul, some bloodied and crying out for help. So large was the crowd on the road that Iraqi troops initially ordered them back, worried that a Daesh suicide bomber could be hiding among them.
Mosul’s residents are fleeing in growing numbers as Iraqi forces push deeper into the country’s second largest city, and the battle-hardened extremists are fighting for every block, exploiting the dense urban terrain and using civilians as human shields.
On Wednesday the tide of displaced people reached the Samah district, where Iraqi medics treated dozens of wounded, including at least six soldiers.
At one point, four children and a man from the same family were rushed into the station, bleeding heavily as their relatives wailed in grief. A mortar round had slammed into the inner courtyard of their home. A few minutes after being brought to the aid station, a 16-month-old girl with a head wound was pronounced dead.
Then the main rush came — hundreds of civilians racing forward on a dirt road. The troops ordered them to halt, saying they had intelligence that Daesh might send suicide bombers disguised as civilians. One of the men raised his shirt to show that he wasn’t armed, saying he was desperate for food.
