Top Iraqi commander offers timetable for liberating Mosul

IRBIL, Iraq — A top Iraqi commander said the operation to retake the city of Mosul from the Islamic State group could be complete in three months or less.

“It’s possible” that Mosul will be liberated in that time frame, Lt. Gen. Talib Shaghati said late Tuesday. However, he warned it is difficult to give an accurate estimate of how long the operation will take because it is not a conventional fight.

“There are many variables,” he said, describing the combat as “guerrilla warfare.”

On Wednesday, forces announced Iraqi that three more neighborhoods in eastern Mosul had been retaken from Islamic State fighters. Brig. Gen. Haider Fadhil of Iraq’s special forces estimated about 85 percent of eastern Mosul is under Iraqi control.

The massive offensive involving some 30,000 Iraqi forces was launched in October and Iraqi leaders originally pledged the city would be retaken before 2017. However as the fight enters its fourth month, only about a third of the city is under government control.

Iraqi forces — largely led by special forces — have slowly advanced across Mosul’s east. Fierce Islamic State counterattacks have killed and injured hundreds of Iraqi troops and inflicted considerable damage to Iraqi military equipment.

Repeatedly, after what appeared to be swift progress on the ground, Iraqi forces have been pushed back by counterattacks overnight.

However, Shaghati said the counterattacks — specifically car bombings — have slowed.

He estimated his forces are seeing less than half the number of Islamic State car bomb attacks on the front than they were faced with when the operation first began.