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| Iraq |
| Iraqi Forces Aim at Crucial Airbase in Final Fight Against IS |
| 2016-06-25 |
| [Iraq Sun] Iraqi forces, backed by U.S. coalition ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... Known as a "super-base," the airfield has two major runways and previously was capable of handling fighter jets, helicopters and large U.S. transport planes. It lies just west of the Tigris river and of advancing Iraqi forces. "It is like the U.S. fight for Baghdad in 2003," said one Iraqi commander speaking on the phone through a translator. "There are jet fighters in the sky, and below them are helicopters and on land we have ground forces with M1A1 tanks," the commander said on condition that he remain anonymous. "This is the way it is going right now," he said on Thursday. U.S. coalition has been hammering IStargetsinthe area with According to IHS Jane's Defence Weekly, photographs released by Iraq's Ministry of Defense last week showed OshKosh M-All Terrain Vehicles armed with heavy machine guns, Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles and M1A1 Abrams tanks advancing towards al Qayyarah. Iraq's 9th Armored Division and brigades of the U.S.-trained 15th Infantry Division are moving in from Makhmour, from where Iraqi forces started their offensive towards Mosul in March. Mosul is the country's second largest city and IS's "capital" in Iraq. U.S. Special Envoy Brett McGurk met with Kurdish Regional President Masoud Marzani and Iraq's National Security Advisor Faleh al Fayyad on Sunday to lay the ground for taking the city. McGurk said on his Twitter feed that the meeting aimed at preparing the political-military plan for Mosul's "full liberation." Kurdish commanders have insisted a political agreement on how the city will be taken and how it will be controlled afterwards is essential to a successful military operation. There are concerns that a heavy Shi'ite militia presence in the operationcould aggravate the sectarian divisions exploited by IS in Iraq. Iraqi security forces have been boosted by Shi'ite militia in other offensives, including in Fallujah. |
| Posted by:Fred |