Minister: Mosul battle will be big, won’t end soon

eRBIl ( Iraq): Iraqi forces have advanced to 5km from Mosul in an offensive against Islamic State’s last major Iraq stronghold and there are signs of revolt against the group, the interior minister of the Kurdish regional government said.

But he added that the battle is not expected to end soon.

Karim Sinjari, who is also acting defence minister in the area, said in an interview on Saturday that Islamic State fighters, believed to number between 4,000 and 8,000, will put up a fierce fight because of Mosul’s symbolic value for the hardliners.

“If they resist in the city, especially in old Mosul, it will be a big fight ... The roads are very thin, very narrow.

“You can’t have vehicles, you can’t have tanks. So it will be a fight, person by person,” he said.

IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a caliphate and himself the leader of the world’s Muslims at a Mosul mosque after seizing Iraq’s second largest city in 2014.

“If Mosul is finished the caliphate they announced is finished. If they lose in Mosul, they will have no place, just Raqqa,” Sinjari said.

The Syrian city of Raqqa is Islamic State’s other major stronghold.

The much-heralded battle to capture Mosul began last week and is expected to be the most important battle fought in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003.

IS has been dislodged from other major cities such as Falluja. That campaign lasted just over one month.

With air and ground support from the US-led coalition, an Iraqi force of about 30,000, joined by US special forces and under US, French and British air cover, is ready to push into Mosul after recapturing Falluja and Ramadi, west of Baghdad, and seizing the Sunni stronghold of Tikrit in central Iraq.

“I think it (the fight for Mosul) will be longer than Falluja and Tikrit, Mosul is a big city,” Sinjari said.

So far, Kurdish forces have seized 20 villages and the Iraqi army have taken 10, he said.

It is not clear whether Abu Bakr, an Iraqi who spent time in a US military jail in Iraq, will risk death or capture and join his fighters in the battle for predominantly Sunni Muslim Mosul.

“According to unconfirmed reports Abu Bakr was in Mosul three days ago.

“People saw him visiting fighters and encouraging them. We are not sure he was present, this is information,” said Sinjari.

Iraqi forces would not be able to defeat IS without help from the inside, such as informers or spies and co-operation from Sunni tribal groups, said Sinjari. — Reuters