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Mosul Offensive News
Iraqi militia capture 2 villages in Tal Afar

Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Al-Hashd al-Shaabi militias said Monday they they recaptured two villages near the strategic town of Tal Afar as operations continue to free it from Islamic State militants.

The militia’s media service said the forces liberated the villages of al-Salam and Southern Torkomaniya south of Tal Afar after dealing ISIS losses in life and equipment.

The advancements come as part of the militia’s fifth phase of operations seeking to enter the center.of Tal Afar. So far, al-Hashd al-Shaabi regularly declare the liberation of villages surrounding the town. It recently celebrated the takeover of Tal Afar’s military airport, a major step that it says denied ISIS a vital supply route between Iraq and Syria.

Al-Hashd’s involvement in battles for Tal Afar has been controversial since the launch of operations to retake Mosul in October. Tal Afar has been a concern for Turkey which had said it feared that the Shia-led militia could carry out retaliatory measures against Sunni Turkmen residents of the town, a notion dismissed by a-Hashd. Turkey had called in the government in Baghdad to limit the role if al-Hashd to besieging the region.

But an Iraqi parliament highly divisive vote on Saturday to incorporate al-Hashd al-Shaabi in the country’s national armed forces could represent an impetus to the militia’s quest to get deeper in the town.

Iraqi regulars capture al-Kasr

Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi joint forces recaptured on Monday another village on its way to the heart of the city of Mosul as part of an operation that launched in October to liberate the city from Islamic State militant.

Commander of operation “We Are Coming, Nineveh”, Lt. Gen Abdul Amir Yarallah, said the forces’ 9th division recaptured the village of al-Kasr, east of Tigris river. He added that the forces raised the Iraqi flag at the village.

The army said recently its forces were aiming at the eastern shore of Tigris River which cuts through Mosul. US-led international coalition air strikes recently destroyed bridges linking both sides of the river, denying ISIS a vital supply route.

Mosul is ISIS’s last outstanding foothold in Iraq, and the group has suffered consecutive defeats since the start of operations, with its members reportedly retreating towards the Syrian borders, while some reports tell of retaliatory shelling by the militia on the liberated areas.

Iraqi forces capture Mosul Plain

Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) We Are Coming, Nineveh Operations Command announced on Monday liberating the areas of Nineveh Plain from the control of the Islamic State extremist group completely.

Commander of the Operations, Major General Abdel Amir Yarallah, said in a brief statement, “Today, security forces managed to liberate the areas of Nineveh Plain, south of Mosul, completely.”

“Security operations are ongoing until the full liberation of the entire province,” Yarallah added.

Joint Iraqi security forces, backed by Army Aviation and international coalition, continue the battle to retake the city of Mosul from the ISIS grip, after the operations being launched in October by General Commander of Armed Forces Haider al-Abadi.

More from Al-Manar: Iraqi Forces Liberate Nineveh Plain
The Iraqi army and Mobilization forces continued on Monday striking the terrorists in Mosul, liberating the entire Nineveh plain in the south of the city.

Iraq’s Popular Mobilization forces liberated three villages in Western Mosul and evacuated scores of families from the area, inflicting heavy human and materialistic losses upon ISIL terrorists.

The Iraqi forces also managed to kill five suicide bombers in Samarra and announced that the security situation across the city is under control.

Mosul fight could take months

Nineveh (Reuters) The Iraqi government has asked civilians in Mosul to stay at home during the offensive, as humanitarian organizations say they can not cope with an influx of hundreds of thousands of people displaced from the city.

More than one million people are believed to remain in the city, the largest in northern Iraq.

Defeating Islamic State in Mosul, Islamic State’s last major bastion in Iraq, is seen as vital to destroying the “caliphate” declared by the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, from the pulpit of Mosul’s Grand Mosque in July 2014.

But commanders have said the battle could take months. Dozens of districts must be taken in the east before attacking forces reach the Tigris River which splits Mosul into east and west. U.S. air strikes have taken out four of the five river bridges used by the militants.

Major General Najm al-Jubbouri, one of the army’s top commanders, told Reuters that the western part of the city could be the more dangerous.

To the south, Iraqi army brigades are now advancing slowly on the remaining Islamic State-held villages before reaching the city limits. To the west, the mostly Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias known as al-Hashd al-Shaabi have cut off the highway to Syria, but they have yet to close in on the city.

“The force left in front of us is small, unable to stop our advance. Their spirit is broken,” Major General Abdul Ghani al-Asadi, one of the commanders of the Special Forces said.

“We have killed more than 992 fighters on our front plus more wounded … Their supplies and communications to the outside world are cut. They stage fewer suicide bombings.”

Iraqi military estimates initially put the number of insurgents in Mosul at 5,000 to 6,000, facing a 100,000-strong coalition force. But Asadi said the figure for the Islamic State presence may have been too high.

Iraqi authorities have not released estimates of civilian casualties but the United Nations says growing numbers of injured, both civilians and military, are overwhelming aid groups.
Posted by: badanov 2016-11-29
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=474395