| Submit your comments on this article |
| Iraq |
| Mosul battle day 6: Iraqi forces advance on Qaraqosh |
| 2016-10-23 |
| [RUDAW.NET] On the sixth day of the djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... offensive, the Iraqi army is advancing on the largely Christian town of Qaraqosh, also known as Bakhdida, in the Hamdaniya district southeast of Mosul on one of three active frontlines on Saturday. "The Iraqi 9th armored division and associated forces are making advances to seize Hamdaniya district. They cleared the Hamdaniya general hospital and raised the Iraqi flag over it," reads a statement from the Iraqi War Media Office of the joint operation command. Qaraqosh is about 20 kilometres southeast of Mosul. Iraqi 16 division forces are advancing towards Tel Kaif, 20 kilometres north of Mosul, according to the media office’s statement. On Thursday, as many as 10,000 Peshmerga forces were involved in a three-pronged operation in the Tel Kaif area, making "significant advances" in "one of the largest ground-led assaults in the war" against ISIS, said the General Command of Peshmerga Forces on Twitter. The Iraqi 15 division forces, along with federal police brigade 18, are making advances on the Qayyara frontline, south of Mosul, on Saturday. They have liberated the villages of Harara and Rasif north of al-Shura and are now advancing on the al-Shura area, the media office stated. On Friday, the Iraqi air force dropped more than 8 million leaflets throughout Nineveh. The information included cell phone numbers residents could call to pass on information and intelligence about ISIS bully boys, the media office stated. ISIS burns sulfur stocks near Mosul [FoxNews] Islamic State militants set fire to sulfur stocks at a factory south of Mosul, the U.S. military said Saturday, creating a plume of noxious smoke that has drifted over a base with U.S. troops involved in the Iraqi offensive to retake the city and forcing some troops to put on gas masks as a precaution. People in the area affected by the smoke said it was difficult to breathe, burned their eyes and stung their noses and throats when they inhaled it, and burned any exposed wet skin. Sulfur dioxide from burning stocks is highly toxic and can be lethal. It can quickly cause shortness of breath and coughing. Militants set the residue alight at the Mishraq sulfur plant on Thursday as a tactical measure to slow Iraqi military advances in the offensive to recapture Mosul—Islamic State’s last remaining stronghold in Iraq. The toxic cloud mixed with choking black smoke already filling the air from oil-well fires started two months ago and still burning in the town of Qayara. The combination affected the nearby U.S. base as shifting winds blew the smoke toward the troops. “Daesh ignited toxic sulfur residue stored at al-Mishraq in an attempt to disrupt the ISF [Iraqi Security Forces’] advance,” said Col.John Dorrian, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, using another name for Islamic State. He added that the military is now assessing the risk to U.S. troops because of the multiple fires. Iraqi army drives IS from Christian region near Mosul [AlAhram] Iraqi army troops on Saturday stormed into a Christian region that has been under Islamic State (IS) group militants control since 2014 as part of U.S.-backed operations to clear the entrances to Mosul, the militants' last major city stronghold in Iraq. A military statement said Iraqi units entered the center of Qaraqosh, a mainly Christian town about 20 km southeast of Mosul, and were carrying out mop-up operations across the town. Further action was under way to seize a neighboring Christian village, Karamless, also known as Karemlash in the Syriac language. The region's population fled in the summer of 2014, when IS group militants swept in. Earlier this week, Iraqi special units also captured Bartella, a Christian village north of Qaraqosh. A U.S. military official estimated there were fewer than a couple of hundred IS group militants in Qaraqosh. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Without the Kurds this offensive is in trouble. The Iraqis are beginning to revert to their poor habits of running at the first sign of a counterattack and leaving munitions and vehicles for the ISIS fighters. |
| Posted by: Tennessee 2016-10-23 09:42 |