Article

2017-03-08 Iraq

Iraqis capture ISIS headquarters in Mosul in surprise raid

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Posted by Fred 2017-03-08 00:00|| || Front Page|| [3 views ] Top
File under: Islamic State

#1 Suppose we'll get a pile of actionable info off their computers or will they have this cleared this out before the Iraqis arrived?

Posted by gorb 2017-03-08 01:36|| 2017-03-08 01:36|| Front Page Top

#2 Surprise?

Iraqi forces launched a daring nighttime raid in the early hours of Tuesday morning on the sprawling complex of municipal buildings in western Mosul along the Tigris River. Beginning just after midnight, Iraq’s emergency response division, an elite arm of the Federal Police, led the attack. Initially advancing some half a dozen blocks past the front line in armored vehicles, but breaching the complex itself on foot.

After facing very little resistance, regular Federal Police units followed and by 6:30 a.m. Tuesday morning an Iraqi flag had been hoisted above the tallest government building. But the soldiers had just pushed up the two main roads leading to the complex and hadn’t cleared the dozens of tightly packed homes on either side.

By 11:00 a.m. clashes inside the compound had intensified and commanders behind the front were getting frantic radio calls for help. Three bulldozers had broken down trying to remove roadblocks, hundreds of troops were trapped and they needed reinforcements. Snipers began to fire down on Iraqi forces from the buildings above and previously concealed suicide car bombs rammed their convoys. The city’s west is much more densely populated than the east and streets are narrow, preventing Iraqi forces from largely fighting from inside their armored vehicles.

By afternoon, Federal Police units were being sent from the Tayran base to try and free the hundreds of troops in and around the municipality buildings and the front line clinic was receiving casualties in waves.

“The plan was stupid,” Dauoud, a Federal Police solider who brought two casualties to the clinic Tuesday afternoon, said. “I don’t know why we did that.”

Posted by Pappy 2017-03-08 08:49|| 2017-03-08 08:49|| Front Page Top

#3 And I surmise that, in the unlikely event of this having happened during Mr.Obama's regime, the Washington Post would not have printed the article.

Posted by Pappy 2017-03-08 15:24|| 2017-03-08 15:24|| Front Page Top

#4 Nah. They'd have saved it until Trump had become president, then they would have spun it so that "the word has just leaked out".

Posted by gorb 2017-03-08 15:31|| 2017-03-08 15:31|| Front Page Top

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