Iraqi Jets Drop Leaflets over Mosul that announce the soon capture by the army

[Bleipriester]

Mosul is in a bad condition. ISIS has depleted the whole city. Food is expensive, the cellular network collapsed and electricity is rare. It will not be too hard to make the people follow the instructions given by a new Radio channel, Mosul FM. Instructions on what to do when the Iraqi assault begins.

Iraqi Jets Drop Leaflets over Mosul Vows to Recapture City
Iraqi jets drop leaflets over Mosul promising to recapture city Reuters

 

[starman]

I'll believe it when I see it. The Iraqi army of late isn't renowned for steadfastness. They haven't even retaken Ramadi.

 

[waltky]

US ready for Mosul offensive, Iraq not so...

US Ready to Set up More Firebases for Iraqi Push to Mosul: Pentagon
Apr 06, 2016 | The U.S. is open to setting up more stand-alone artillery firebases in Iraq similar to the one in which a Marine was killed last month to support an advance by Iraqi Security Forces towards Mosul, a top Pentagon planner said. "As the ISF progresses toward isolating Mosul, there may be a situation where there is another base that is opened -- or re-opened from years past -- that would be used in the same manner as a fire support base," Rear Adm. Andrew L. "Woody" Lewis told reporters on Wednesday.

However, the move is "dependent on what's happening on ground and what's happening in the campaign," said Lewis, the Joint Staff's vice director for operations at the Pentagon. Lewis said no additional firebases have been set up as yet since about 200 Marines from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit secretly deployed last month with four 155mm howitzers to establish a front-line position about 60 miles southeast of Mosul. The position that the Marines called Fire Base Bell -- the Iraqis call it the Kara Soar Counter Fire Complex -- was set apart from the Iraqi forces and was the first stand-alone fire base for U.S. troops in Iraq.

U.S. Marines with Task Force Spartan, 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), on Fire Base Bell, Iraq, fire an M777A2 Howitzer at an ISIS infiltration route​

On March 19, rocket fire from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, killed Staff Sgt. Louis Cardin, 27, of Temecula, California, and wounded eight other Marines. On April 1, hundreds gathered on the steps of the Temecula city hall to honor Cardin, a 10-year Marine veteran. The presence of the Marines near Makhmour, projected as a staging base for an advance on Mosul by Iraq's 15th Division in concert with Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, only became known after Cardin's death.

Cardin was the second U.S. service member officially listed as having died in combat on the ground in Iraq since the air campaign to degrade and defeat ISIS began on Aug. 8, 2014. The first U.S. combat casualty occurred last October during a special operations raid on the northern town of Hawijah to free ISIS prisoners in which Army Master Sgt. Joshua L. Wheeler, 39, of Roland, Oklahoma, was killed. At a Pentagon news conference, said that the Marine fire base was part of the "accelerated" campaign against ISIS that was focused on retaking Mosul, the main ISIS stronghold in Iraq, and Raqqa, the self-proclaimed ISIS capital in northeastern Syria.

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Iraq puts northern offensive against Islamic State on hold
6 Apr 2016 - An Iraqi army offensive touted as the first phase of a campaign to recapture the northern city of Mosul from Islamic State has been paused until more forces arrive to hold ground, the commander in charge said on Wednesday.

An Iraqi army offensive touted as the first phase of a campaign to recapture the northern city of Mosul from Islamic State has been paused until more forces arrive to hold ground, the commander in charge said on Wednesday. Almost three weeks into the operation, Iraqi forces have retaken just three villages from Islamic State in the Makhmour area, which is set to be a key staging ground for a future assault on Mosul, around 60 km (40 miles) further north. The faltering start has cast renewed doubt on the capabilities of the Iraqi army, which partially collapsed when Islamic State militants took around a third of the country in 2014.

Major General Najm Abdullah al-Jubbouri, who is in charge of the offensive, said that Iraqi forces were now waiting for the arrival of federal police units and additional local tribal fighters to hold territory after it is retaken. That would free up his forces to go on the offensive against the insurgents, Jubbouri said in a statement, dismissing what he described as efforts to disparage the army. "We do not want to use all our units to hold territory," he said. The initial target of the latest offensive was Qayara - an Islamic State hub on the western bank of the Tigris river - but Iraqi forces have so far failed to recapture the hilltop village of Nasr on the eastern side.

In the statement, Jubbouri said the militants had dug a network of tunnels beneath Nasr and prepared suicide bombers and a fleet of vehicles rigged with explosives, some of which contain weaponised chlorine, a chemical weapon Islamic State has used before in northern Iraq. U.S. Army Major Jon-Paul Depreo, operations officer for the international coalition fighting Islamic State in Iraq and neighbouring Syria, said at the weekend the insurgents were determined not to lose Nasr because of its strategic position on high ground.

Depreo also said difficult terrain meant it was not possible to deploy a large number of forces there against the militants, who are more familiar with the area. "These (Iraqi army) forces aren't from that area necessarily, so they're learning the area," Depreo told reporters in Baghdad. The coalition, led by the United States, has trained thousands of Iraqi police and soldiers in preparation for the operation to retake Mosul - by far the largest city in Islamic State's self-proclaimed caliphate.

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Iraqi Forces Face Heavy Resistance in ISIS-held Town
Apr 05, 2016 | Heavy resistance has slowed Iraqi forces Tuesday as they pushed toward the center of a town held by Islamic State militants in western Anbar province, commanders at the scene said. Hundreds of roadside bombs, car bombs and heavy mortar fire slowed advancing Iraqi troops to a near halt Tuesday after entering the small town of Hit the previous day.

Hit — which lies along the Euphrates River in a valley in Anbar's sprawling desert — is strategically important as it sits along an IS supply line that links territory controlled by the extremist Sunni group in Iraq and in Syria. Through the line, IS ferries fighters and supplies from Syria into Iraq. Iraqi troops entered Hit on Monday, under cover of heavy airstrikes and a week after launching the operation to retake the town. Their advance has been stalled as tens of thousands of civilians become trapped by the fighting. A political crisis in Baghdad as well as poor weather conditions further slowed the push.

Iraqi commanders overseeing the operation said Tuesday that counterattacks and a shortage of engineering teams to clear roadside bombs slowed their advance. "If we had more specialized engineers we wouldn't be in this situation," said the head of Iraq's counterterrorism forces, Gen. Abdel Ghani al-Asadi.

People flee their homes during clashes between Iraqi security forces and Islamic State group in Hit, Iraq​

Gen. Husham al-Jabri said Iraqi counterterrorism forces were hit with a barrage of mortars and a string of suicide car bombings on Tuesday morning as they pushed into Hit from the north. He didn't give casualty figures. "Our speed depends on the resistance we're facing," said al-Jabri, adding that they want to "keep our casualties in the lowest level."

At a makeshift base on Hit's southern edge, Iraqi troops at the front line could be heard saying over a handheld radio to commanders that the "mortars are coming down like rain." While Iraq's elite counterterrorism forces are some of the country's most capable ground forces, they still depend heavily on U.S.-led coalition air strikes to clear territory.

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[waltky]

Marines fix on ISIS targets gettin' ready for Mosul push...

Marines Collect Intel, Pinpoint ISIS Targets as Mosul Fight Draws Near
Sep 02, 2016 | Behind the scenes in the fight against Islamic State militants in Iraq are Marine intelligence analysts who work around the clock to produce what are called, in military euphemism, "target development products" -- essentially, information about enemy equipment and personnel to be destroyed.

As Iraqi security forces, supported by a U.S.-led coalition, fight ISIS militants with hopes to retake Mosul in the north by year's end, troops with Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Crisis Response-Central Command provide "intelligence surge support," developing from one to six or more targets in a given week, task force commander Col. Kenneth Kassner told Military.com this week. Speaking via phone from a location in the Middle East, Kassner said operational tempo had maintained its intensity since the unit rotated into the region in April. Deploying in six-month rotations, the unit was created in 2014 as a contingency force for the region, based in six countries and on standby for operations in 20. But since the 2,300-man task force stood up, operations in support of the fight against the Islamic State have dominated its responsibilities.

Four months into this rotation, Marine F/A-18D Hornets with the unit have conducted more than 1,500 sorties to take out enemy targets in Iraq and Syria. Task force Marines also provide security at the Al Asad and Al Taqaddum air bases in Iraq, enabling training of Iraqi troops and advisory support at key locations near the fight. And while the unit's Marines are not in combat on the ground, they quietly perform a number of background roles in the warfighting machine against ISIS. "We have a very robust intelligence capability here in the [Marine air-ground task force] and what that enables us to do is, my intelligence analysts are able to better assess targets in support of the Iraqis' ground maneuver," Kassner said. "And once we develop that target, we're looking for different types of patterns of analysis associated with that target."

U.S. Marines with Task Force Spartan, 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), on Fire Base Bell, Iraq, fire an M777A2 Howitzer at an ISIS infiltration route​

The intel, derived through air reconnaissance and other methods Kassner declined to describe, is submitted through coalition channels and used to inform the fight. "Whether or not it is identified for a particular strike, that doesn't reside with this MAGTF," he said. "What we are providing is really a supporting effort to that larger target development process." U.S. airstrikes have wiped out more than 26,000 individual ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria since the fight began, according to U.S. Central Command data compiled by Time Magazine. On the ground, Iraqi troops have celebrated several high-stakes victories; in June, they reclaimed Fallujah after nearly two years in the hands of enemy forces.

Kassner said the MAGTF also continues to keep its squadron of MV-22 Ospreys at the ready for tactical recovery of aircraft and personnel (TRAP) missions in support of the ISIS fight. Amid constant and complex drills and training, both at home and downrange, he said, Marines had been able to "dramatically improve" TRAP response time, shaving minutes off every step of the mission, from equipment preparation to runway taxi. While the task force has not been called to recover downed coalition aircraft or personnel since Ospreys deployed to recover an Air Force MQ-1 Predator drone in southern Iraq last June, Kassner said, the unit has forward-positioned aircraft at the ready in support of coalition strikes multiple times. "Every minute is precious when conducting a tactical recovery of aircraft and personnel," he said.

Marines Collect Intel, Pinpoint ISIS Targets as Mosul Fight Draws Near | Military.com

 

[waltky]

The Frenchies gettin' in on this one...

Mosul Offensive Against ISIS Set to Begin, Says French Defense Minister
9/30/16 | Jean-Yves Le Drian's comments come after the French air force conducted airstrikes against the group.

The operation to liberate the northern Iraqi city of Mosul from the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) is set to begin soon, France’s defense minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian declared on Friday, the same day that the French air force conducted strikes against the group after taking off from the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier. “The battle for Mosul has not started yet. (The operations today) are the extension of our support for the coalition,” he told reporters in northwestern France, Reuters reported. “There will soon be the main attack.”

The U.S.-led coalition members and Iraqi forces are accelerating their preparations for the offensive on Iraq’s second-largest city, with Washington announcing on Wednesday that it had increased its troop presence in Iraq to more than 5,000 to support the Iraqi military and France conducting airstrikes against the group in Iraq. France has stepped up its aerial campaign against ISIS after becoming the first country to join the U.S. offensive in the country. The country has flown 32 missions in both Iraq and Syria in the past week, according to the French military. The Charles de Gaulle aircraft has returned to the region, in what is its third tour to the area in the two years that it has engaged ISIS.

Paris decided to ramp up its military action against the radical Islamist group after a series of deadly attacks on French soil, the worst being the Paris attacks in November 2015. France has deployed special forces in Syria, Iraq and Libya while it is arming the Kurdish Peshmerga and Iraqi forces in their fight against the group on the ground. In Iraq, some 150 French forces are conducting tactical missions and training Iraqi forces.

ISIS captured the city in June 2014 in its lightning offensive across northern Iraq. It is the location where ISIS’s self-proclaimed caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi announced the creation of the group’s caliphate straddling the Iraqi-Syrian border, and it remains the group’s biggest prize despite a series of territorial losses elsewhere in the caliphate. Kurdish and Iraqi forces have already started to encircle Mosul, backed by U.S. airstrikes, capturing swathes of territory from ISIS in the areas surrounding the city, estimated to have a population of more than one million people. The operation is expected to begin in October and, while it will definitely involve Iraqi forces advancing into the city, the role of Kurdish forces and Iraqi militias remain even unclear because of sectarian sensitivities.

The offensive on ISIS-held Mosul will begin "soon," France's defense minister says

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Pentagon: No More US Troops Needed for Mosul Battle
Sep 29, 2016 | The U.S. support mission for the battle of Mosul is not likely to require additional troops beyond the 600 just authorized by President Barack Obama, a military spokesman in Baghdad said Thursday.

The military can't guarantee how the offensive will develop, "but I can tell you we believe we have all the forces we need to help the Iraqis liberate Mosul," Air Force Col. John Dorrian, spokesman for Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, said in a video briefing to the Pentagon. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter announced Wednesday that 600 more troops would be sent to Iraq to provide logistics and maintenance support, as well as the training and enabling function, for the Iraqi Security Forces now massing at the Qayyarah West airfield about 40 miles southeast of Mosul. The 600 service members will bring the total number of U.S. troops in Iraq to slightly more than 5,000.

Soldiers with 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), move toward an objective while searching for detonation cord after an IED detonated in Iskandariyah, Iraq.​

In his briefing, Dorrian said the U.S. is stepping up air and artillery strikes in the "shaping operations" to prepare for the attack on Mosul, a city of two million before the forces of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, swept into Iraq in 2014 against little resistance by the Iraqi army. He said that U.S. and coalition airstrikes in the last 30 days have killed 18 ISIS leaders -- 13 of them in Mosul. "By taking these individuals off the battlefield, it creates some really disruptive effects to enemy command and control" for the coming battle, Dorrian said. The airstrikes have largely stopped the group from attempting to bring in reinforcements by convoy, but some fighters are still able to trickle into Mosul individually or in small groups, he said. ISIS is estimated to have 3,000 to 4,500 fighters in Mosul, Dorrian said.

Iraqi Security Forces will have eight to 12 brigades, or up to 30,000 troops, for the offensive, plus Kurdish Peshmerga forces arrayed to the east, north and west of the city, Dorrian said. The offensive is expected to come up the Tigris River Valley from the south. A major concern for the U.S. is how the Iraqis will handle what is expected to be a massive flow of Mosul residents -- known as internally displaced persons -- fleeing the city once the attack begins. In the retaking of Fallujah in Anbar province earlier this year, human rights groups and the United Nations charged that Shia Popular Mobilization Units, allied with Iraqi Security Forces, committed atrocities in the "vetting" of refugees to weed out ISIS fighters.

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