Elite Iraqi troops join attack on Mosul
U.S.-trained counterterrorism force has been at the fore of key battles against Daesh
BARTELLA, IRAQ— Iraq’s elite counterterrorism units advanced to within 10 kilometres of Mosul on Thursday as Kurdish forces also opened a new front to the north, closing the noose on Daesh militants in their last major stronghold in Iraq.
Iraqi commanders said the counterterrorism force, which has received U.S. training and support, was largely in control of the town of Bartella after entering the battle for the first time since the long-awaited offensive to recapture Mosul began earlier this week. Fighting, however, continued in parts of Bartella, a mainly Christian town that was once home to 30,000 people.
Daesh, also known as ISIS and ISIL, sent a stream of car bombs to waylay the advancing forces, whose commanders believe they could be on the outskirts of Mosul within days.
The involvement of the counterterrorism unit came as Kurdish soldiers, known as peshmerga, opened a new front against Daesh from the north of the strategic northern city, which has been held by Daesh for more than two years.
For Daesh, losing Mosul could break the back of its self-proclaimed caliphate in Iraq, and resistance is expected to be fierce.
Thursday marked the second major push since Iraq embarked on a large-scale operation Monday seeking to retake the city.
Over the past two days, the combined Kurdish and Iraqi forces have taken a string of villages south and east of Mosul, which has been under the control of Daesh for more than two years.
Convoys of black Humvees entered Bartella at dawn — and were met with a stream of car bombs, including 10 in the morning alone, commanders said.
Lt. Gen. Abdelwahab al-Saedi, a commander with the counterterrorism units, said the militants were fighting hard for villages and towns on the city’s outskirts to keep the fight out of Mosul, where the presence of civilians prevents them from heavily booby-trapping areas.
“They always focus on their outer lines,” he said, as he watched the battle from an observation point on the outskirts Bartella. A plume of gray dust kicked up into the sky as a truck bomb detonated in the distance.
“They use these car bombs to try and shock us,” he said.
The elite units have been at the front of nearly every other battle against the militants in Iraq, and they expect to be the first to break into Mosul. “We’re the only ones with the capability,” Saedi said.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced to Western diplo- mats in a video call to Paris that forces were moving “more quickly than planned” toward Mosul, and he lauded the cooperation in the attack by the different forces.
Efforts to wrest the largest city in northern Iraq from the militants’ control have been stymied by concerns for the safety of more than one million civilians estimated to remain there, as well as squabbles over which of Iraq’s disparate fighting forces would participate.
Tens of thousands of soldiers are participating in the operation, including Canadian special forces troops deployed with peshmerga troops in northern Iraq.
Daesh fighters are vastly outnumbered but have put up determined resistance, countering the attacking force with suicide car bombs, impro- vised explosive devices and mortar fire.
The battle for Mosul is by far the most complex fight in the grinding conflict to push Daesh militants out of Iraq, involving not just regular Iraqi army forces, but also Sunni tribal units, powerful Shiite militias and the Kurdish forces of the northern semi-autonomous region that are often at odds with the Baghdad government.
Daesh fighters overran the city in a lightning offensive in 2014, and it has since become the centre of their operations in the country.
As Kurdish and Iraqi forces have pushed into the network of villages surrounding Mosul, they have found them heavily defended and boobytrapped — a situation only expected to get worse as they draw closer to the city.
Iraq’s black-clad counterterrorism troops are among the most celebrated and effective units in the military. They have led the assaults on Ramadi and Fallujah, cities west of Baghdad, over the past year.