Elite Iraqi special forces join the battle for Mosul
BARTELLA, IRAQ — In a significant escalation of the battle for Mosul, elite Iraqi special forces joined the fight Thursday, unleashing a pre-dawn assault on an Islamic State-held town east of the besieged city.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military announced the first American combat death since the operation began.
U.S. officials said the American service member died Thursday from wounds sustained in a roadside bomb explosion north of Mosul. More than 100 U.S. special operations forces are embedded with Iraqi units in the offensive, and hundreds more are playing a support role.
The American had been advising members of the Iraqi Kurdish force known as the peshmerga, a U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss details.
Roadside bombs and other improvised explosive devices pose a particular danger to advancing Iraqi forces and the U.S. advisers who are with them. The Islamic State group, which has occupied Mosul for more than two years, has prepared extensive defences in and around the city.
As they charged toward the town of Bartella, 15 kilometres from Mosul’s outskirts, the Iraqi special forces faced another favoured weapon in the IS arsenal: armoured trucks packed with explosives and driven by suicide bombers.
The militants’ signature battlefield tactic, the weapons offered a glimpse at what Iraqi forces can expect as they approach the extremists’ biggest urban bastion.
The pre-dawn assault on Bartella was part of a multi-pronged operation on eastern approaches to Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city. Attack helicopters strafed militant positions as they advanced amid a hail of gunfire.
The U.S.-trained special forces, officially known as the Counter Terrorism Service, are widely seen as Iraq’s most professional and least sectarian fighters, and have served as the shock troops in previous campaigns against IS. They are expected to lead the charge into Mosul.
IS militants unleashed at least nine suicide car and truck bombs against the advancing troops, eight of which were destroyed before reaching their targets, while the ninth struck an armoured Humvee, Lt. Col Muntadhar al-Shimmari told the Associated Press. He did not give a casualty figure, but another officer said five Iraqi soldiers were wounded. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release information.
“After we break them in Bartella, everywhere else, they will crumble,” said Maj. Gen. Fadhil Barwari. He said IS had few defences in the town, which was almost completely empty of civilians. “They just left some snipers and suicide car bombs,” he said.
Meanwhile, Iraqi Kurdish forces announced a simultaneous attack, with peshmerga fighters deployed on mountains northeast of Mosul descending from their positions and charging toward the front line.
Under cover of mortar and gunfire, the Kurdish troops used bulldozers and other heavy equipment to fill trenches dug by the militants as part of their defence of the I-Sheld village of Barima, then advanced with their armoured vehicles toward the extremists’ positions.
Military operations also appeared to be underway in the town of Bashiqa, northeast of Mosul, where thick smoke could be seen billowing up. A day earlier, Bashiqa was pounded by airstrikes and mortar fire from peshmerga positions high above.
Lt. Gen. Talib Shaghati told a news conference late Thursday that the special forces had succeeded in retaking Bartella. But Iraqi forces were still facing stiff resistance inside the town shortly before he spoke, and past advances against IS elsewhere in Iraq have often proved fleeting.
Soldiers stationed a few kilometres from Bartella said they watched as some 20 car bombs exploded in the town over the course of the day, each one sending a plume of smoke into the air. By late afternoon the skies over Bartella were black.
IS has used the tactic in past battles to wreak havoc among front line troops.
“We destroyed the bombs with tanks,” Sgt. Maj. Qusay Rashid said. “They are sending all these car bombs now because we’re at the beginning of this huge battle. They are trying to put up their best defence.”
After Bartella, Iraqi forces advancing toward Mosul will begin to hit villages and suburbs where civilians still live, a factor that will further complicate military operations.