Islamic militants attempt to divert battle for Mosul
‘Spoiler attacks’ being launched
BAGHDAD — Iraqi forces battled Islamic State fighters for a third day in a remote western town far from Mosul on Tuesday, but the U.S.-led coalition insisted the latest in a series of “spoiler attacks” had not forced it to divert resources from the fight to retake Iraq’s second-largest city.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi acknowledged that the militants briefly seized local government headquarters in the western town of Rutba, offering new details about the assault, which U.S. and Iraqi officials have sought to downplay since it began Sunday.
The White House envoy to the U.S.-led coalition battling IS insisted the militants’ strategy was failing, saying there had been “no diversion whatsoever” of forces taking part in the Mosul operation, which is expected to take weeks, if not months.
“Daesh is trying to launch spoiler attacks,” Brett McGurk told reporters at a Baghdad news conference, using the Arabic acronym for IS. “This was expected, it’s planned for, and we can expect more of it.”
The complex assault on Rutba, hundreds of miles south of Mosul, is just the latest IS attempt to try to divert Iraqi military resources from the fight for the militants’ last major urban bastion in Iraq. Last week the group launched a similar attack in and around the northern city of Kirkuk, some 100 miles southeast of Mosul, igniting gun battles that lasted two days and killed at least 80 people.
McGurk said militant attacks on Rutba were carried out by “small, isolated teams” and were “easily defeatable.” But he acknowledged there was still a “small Daesh presence” in two neighborhoods.
The Iraqi military has insisted throughout the Rutba assault that the situation is under control, without offering further details.
Al-Abadi acknowledged Tuesday the militants did have some initial battlefield successes at the start of the offensive. “They took control, it’s true, of the municipal headquarters,” the Iraqi prime minister told reporters. But he said Iraqi security forces drove them out “within hours” and had regained control of the town.
However, Rajeh Barakat, an Anbar provincial councilman who sits on the security committee, said earlier Tuesday that IS fighters were still clashing with security forces in two southern neighborhoods of Rutba.
“We have reports saying the militants killed some civilians and members of the security forces, but we don’t know how many,” he said.
Near Mosul, fighting continued Tuesday in a belt of villages and towns to the north, east and south of the city. Maj. Gen. Haider Fadhil said Iraqi special forces reached a village four miles from the eastern edge of Mosul.
Around 335 civilians were evacuated to a refugee camp from the village of Tob Zawa, about 5½ miles from Mosul, which was retaken by special forces on Monday, Fadhil said. He said the civilians were relocated to protect them from possible IS shelling.
Abdeljabar Antar, who was evacuated from Tob Zawa along with his wife and four children, said the IS militants had included foreign fighters “who spoke languages I don’t know — Russians, Pakistanis.”