Battle to retake Mosul could last for months
Fight by Iraqi forces has begun, assisted by U.S. air power.
The commander of U.S. forces in Iraq said there will be moments of fierce combat as fighters get closer to the IS-controlled city.
The fight for Mosul, launched this week by Iraqi security forces supported by U.S. air power and advisers, could take months and is likely to feature periods of fierce combat, the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East said Wednesday.
Army Gen. Joseph Votel, commander of U.S. Central Command, said the duration of the battle will be determined in part by how the Islamic State reacts to the unfolding Iraqi offensive. He noted that the extremist group has had more than two years to prepare its defenses in and around the sprawling Tigris River city.
The militants thus far have put up significant resistance in villages surrounding Mosul. They have sent trucks loaded with explosives careening toward the front lines and fired mortars to slow the Iraqi forces’ advance since Monday. Iraqi soldiers are in the lead combat role; the U.S. is supporting them with a variety of aircraft, artillery and advisers but the Pentagon has said repeatedly that none of the Americans are on the front lines.
Speaking at the Center for American Progress, a Washington think tank, Votel said Iraqi officials have publicly spoken of the Mosul battle lasting for weeks or months. He said he is comfortable with the Iraqis’ time frame and said it was important to credit the Islamic State with being an adaptive enemy capable of adjusting to setbacks.
“I’ll give you an example,” he said. “The operation we did to Manbij, in northern Syria, took about 71 days to complete, from start to finish.” It ended in August. Votel noted that another key objective in Syria — Raqqa, the Islamic Statet’s self-proclaimed capital — is about three times the size of Manbij.
“Mosul is about three times the size of Raqqa,” he said, suggesting that retaking Mosul could be orders of magnitude harder than either Manbij or Raqqa.
There had been speculation that offensives to retake Raqqa and Mosul might happen simultaneously. Ask about that, Votel repeatedly stressed the importance of what he called “simultaneous application of pressure.”
“I think it’s extraordinarily important and we are certainly attempting to do that,” Votel said. “I think what we’ve seen is when we apply pressure on the Islamic State forces, they do squirt out, they try to go to other locations, they move leaders, they move the bulk of their forces, they try to relocate some of their operations.”
He said the U.S. and its coalition partners could respond to that in various ways, including directing airstrikes at Islamic State fighters seeking to move from Mosul to Raqqa.
“I think it’s extraordinarily important to apply pressure in many areas, Iraq and Syria,” he added.
Separately, another U.S. general said U.S. Army Apache helicopters have entered the battle for Mosul. He declined to provide specifics, citing the need to preserve operational security, but said they have been striking Islamic State targets at night. The mere presence of the Apaches on the battlefield has been a confidence booster for Iraqi soldiers, he said.
Militants thus far have put up significant resistance in villages around Mosul.