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| Iraq |
| Iraqi forces push north after advances in Baji |
| 2015-10-18 |
| [ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Iraqi forces pressed Saturday their biggest offensive in months to resume their long-stalled northward advance and disrupt jihadist lines, security officers said. After recapturing parts of Baiji and the huge nearby refinery complex from ISIS, security and allied paramilitary forces thrust further northward up the main highway leading to djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... They reached the town of Zawiyah and vowed to push on to Sharqat, the northernmost town in Salaheddin province before the border with Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital. "Iraqi forces are besieging the villages of Msahaq and Zawiyah," about 25 kilometers (16 miles) north of Baiji, a senior officer in Salaheddin operations command said. Reclaiming control of that stretch of road and the villages along it would contribute to isolating ISIS strongholds east of the Tigris, such as Hawijah, from the self-proclaimed caliphate's heartland on the other side of the river. "Retaking Zawiyah would divide the battlefield; Daesh [Islamic State] will be in an awkward position," retired general and security analyst Abdel Karim Khalaf said, using an Arabic acronym for ISIS. "Their transport towards Tikrit and Ramadi will be complicated, the secondary itineraries are long and difficult," he said. Iraqi forces, including thousands of fighters from the Popular Mobilization organization dominated by Tehran-backed Shite militias, were still battling ISIS in and around Baiji Saturday. They were also securing Sinniya, a nearby town which commands access to the road leading to the western Anbar province, where thousands more forces were closing in on the capital Ramadi. |
| Posted by:Fred |