Iraqi forces launch offensive to take west Mosul

Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighters advance as smoke billows in the background as they deploy in the area of Dohuk, north of Mosul, during an operation to attack Islamic State militants on October 20. On Sunday, Iraqi security forces launched the offensive to retake west Mosul. File Photo by Shvan Harki/UPI | License Photo

Feb. 19 (UPI) — Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Sunday announced Iraqi security forces have launched the military offensive to retake western Mosul from the Islamic State.

The United Nations estimates about 750,000 civilians are currently in Mosul amid a humanitarian crisis in which shortages of basic needs such as food, water and fuel are widespread.

The U.S.-led international coalition suggested it may take up to six months for Iraqi security forces to capture west Mosul.

The offensive to retake Mosul began on Oct. 17, led by Iraqi security forces and aided by the Kurdish Peshmerga, a Shiite-led militia, and the U.S.-led international coalition against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, ISIL and Daesh.

“The battle for the complete liberation of Mosul cannot come soon enough for the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi citizens who for more than two years have suffered under ISIS oppression in West Mosul, during which time ISIS committed horrible atrocities and terrorized the people of Mosul,” the U.S.-led coalition, called the Combined Joint Task Force: Operation Inherent Resolve, said in a statement.

Iraqi forces, made up of the Iraqi Army and the Iraqi Federal Police and joined by the Hashd al-Shaabi Shiite-led militia, are advancing from south of Mosul along the Tigris River in the offensive. Iraqi Federal Police have captured the villages of al-Kanttira and al-Abyath.

Shaalan Ali, commander of the Iraqi Federal Police, told Rudaw his forces have killed about 37 Islamic State militants.

“We have not obtained the death toll among ISIS militants on the other fronts, but we have dealt a major blow to the enemy by also detonating 10 car bombs and clearing 20 houses of booby traps,” Ali said. “Since our forces are familiar with ISIS war tactics, which are dependence on snipers, car bombs and suicide bombers, they cannot withstand our forces from advancing … Overall, the foe’s morale is broken. Many of their leaders have defected from the battlefields. And these kinds of defections have caused fights among the militants themselves.”

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