Irag launches offensive to retake IS STR..................

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Iraq launches offensive to retake 'IS' stronghold Mosul

Iraqi forces and Kurdish peshmerga have launched a long anticipated offensive against Mosul, held by the "Islamic State." Retaking the city could expose tensions between disparate forces vying for influence in the city.
Irak Mossul Truppen der Peschmerga bereiten Offensive vor (picture-alliance/AP Photo/B. Janssen)
The Iraqi security forces and Kurdish peshmerga fighters, backed by US air and ground support, have started an operation to retake Mosul from the self-styled "Islamic State" (IS), Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced early Monday on state television.
"The time of victory has come and operations to liberate Mosul have started," he said in an address broadcast by the Al Iraqiya channel. "Today I declare the start of these victorious operations to free you from the violence and terrorism of Daesh (IS)," he said, using an Arabic acronym for the terror group.
"The force leading liberation operations is the brave Iraqi army with the national police and they are the ones that will enter Mosul, not others," al-Abadi added.
Retaking the city would be a major blow to IS, which overran much of the country after seizing Mosul in June 2014 from a fleeing Iraqi army, capturing tanks, weapons, ammunition and money to fuel its subsequent growth.
The long-awaited offensive to recapture Iraq's second-biggest city follows months of preparations after Iraqi security forces largely pushed the Sunni extremist group from central Iraq over the past year.
In Washington, US Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Monday called the launch of the Mosul operation "a decisive moment in the campaign" to defeat to IS.
The coordinated offensive involves sometimes rival forces, including Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga to the north and east of the city, with the Iraqi army, Sunni tribal units and Shiite militia moving in from the south.
To retake Mosul, the combined forces will have to push through between 20 and 30 kilometers (13-20 miles) of IS-held territory before reaching the outskirts of the city, where several thousand IS fighters have had two years to build defenses. Local media reported territorial gains in villages around the city early on Monday afternoon. 
 
Watch video04:06

Q&A with Amir Musawy, Berlin-based Iraqi journalist on the impending Mosul offensive

Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, the commander the US-led coalition against IS, said in a statement that the operation to regain control of Mosul could take "weeks, possibly longer." 
"Iraq is supported by a wide range of coalition capabilities, including air support, artillery, intelligence, advisers and forward air controllers. But to be clear, the thousands of ground combat forces who will liberate Mosul are all Iraqis," he said.
Once Iraqi security forces reach the city, the country's elite counter-terrorism units are likely to spearhead the urban battle as they did in Tikrit and Falluja. Several thousand IS fighters are holed up in the city and likely to use snipers, suicide bombers, bomb-laden vehicles and booby traps to slow the Iraqi advance.
But the operation has also raised concern over an impending humanitarian crisis in a city where a million people still live.
Stephen O'Brien, the UN's under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said in a statement that "depending on the intensity and scope of the fighting, as many as 1 million people may be forced to flee their homes in a worst-case scenario."
He warned that civilians could be caught in the crossfire and may be used as human shields to protect IS fighters from US-led coalition airstrikes. Already overburdened aid organizations have warned that they are unprepared to handle large-scale humanitarian upheaval.
 
Watch video01:03

Iraq launches offensive to retake Mosul

Even when Mosul is liberated, overcoming the various political rivalries and interests in Nineveh province in the aftermath is likely to unleash a power struggle. While the various armed groups cobbled together for the Mosul operation have a joint interest in fighting IS, the question remains over what they will have in common once the city falls.
It is unclear what kind post-IS political agreement has been reached to govern the largely Sunni Arab city, traditionally one of the most restive and anti-government since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq.
The Iraqi Kurds said they had struck a political deal with the central government ahead of the assault under which peshmerga forces and their allies wpuld advance from north, east and southeast, but would not enter the mostly Sunni Arab city where their presence would be opposed.
In a statement on Saturday, Masoud Barzani, the head of the autonomous Kurdistan region, said: "Baghdad and Erbil [the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan and seat of the partly autonomous regional government] have also agreed to establish a joint higher political committee whose task would be to supervise the affairs of Mosul after the liberation."
Another concern is the role of Iran-backed Shiite militia, or Popular Mobilization Units, which have been accused of human rights abuses against Sunnis but have been a valuable force bolstering government forces from the south.  Details of a deal have not been published, but it has been reported that - similar to the peshmerga's arrangement - the Shiite mililita forces will also not enter Mosul.
Turkey, which has close relations to the Iraqi Kurds, has been at odds with Baghdad over its base in Bashiqa in Kurdish-controlled territory just behind the front lines.
The base has been used by Turkey to train about 3,000 soldiers tied to former Nineveh governor and Sunni politician Atheel al-Nujaifi, a rival of the central government. Turkey argues that this force should be involved in holding Mosul once it is recaptured and has warned that the offensive could upset the ethnic and sectarian structure of the largely Sunni city.
As the Iraqi government announced the start of the operation, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated that Turkey could not allow "Sunni-Shiite strife" in the city and insisted "it is not possible for us to stay outside."
Part of Turkey's motivation to intervene is that the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has fought a three-decades long war with Turkey and is a rival of Barzani, may also join the Mosul operation to the northwest of the city.
cw/msh (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)

DW RECOMMENDS

Interview: Battle for Mosul likely to lead to power struggle

Military forces are gathering outside Mosul, a city controlled by "Islamic State." DW spoke with expert Renad Mansour about the future of Iraq's second-largest city, and the power vacuum that is likely to emerge. (14.10.2016)  

Thousands of people flee Mosul before Iraq anti-IS op

With Iraq's military preparing to attempt to retake the northern city of Mosul from the "Islamic State," new bloodshed is imminent. People who have fled give accounts of the situation in the largest city occupied by IS. (16.10.2016)  

Mosul offensive to displace a million people, UNHCR warns

UNHCR's Iraq chief has warned 'one of the largest manmade disasters' in modern history would follow the military campaign later this year. Some 60,000 people have already fled the city since Iraq announced its plans. (30.09.2016)  

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Q&A with Amir Musawy, Berlin-based Iraqi journalist on the impending Mosul offensive   

Iraq launches offensive to retake Mosul   

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