Coalition huddles as Iraqi forces inch towards Mosul
QARAQOSH, Iraq: Iraqi forces were inching to within striking distance of eastern Mosul Tuesday as coalition defence chiefs gathered in Paris agreed to also take on the jihadists’ Syrian bastion of Raqa.
With the Mosul battle in its second week, French President Francois Hollande called for the US-led coalition against the Islamic State group to prepare for the aftermath and the next stages of the campaign against the jihadists.
The United Nations said it had received reports of a new series of atrocities by the jihadists as troops close in on its last major urban stronghold in Iraq.
Forces from the elite counterterrorism service ( CTS) retook areas close to the eastern outskirts of Mosul.
“On our front, we have advanced to within five or six kilometres (three to four miles) of Mosul,” their commander, General Abdelghani al-Assadi, told AFP.
“We must now coordinate with forces on other fronts to launch a coordinated” attack on Mosul, he said, speaking from the Christian town of Bartalla.
Kurdish peshmerga forces are making gains on the northeastern front, but federal forces advancing from the south have some way to go before reaching the outskirts.
“All axes of advance have made the progress we expected at this stage of the operation, some are ahead of schedule,” said Brett McGurk, the US envoy to the coalition.
Meanwhile, thousands of men from the Hashed al- Shaabi paramilitary umbrella group dominated by Tehran- backed Shiite militias were preparing for a push to the west of mainly Sunni Mosul.
Iraqi Kurds and Sunni Arab politicians have opposed the Hashed’s participation in the operation, as has Turkey, which has a military presence east of Mosul despite repeated demands by Baghdad to withdraw its forces.
Tensions have risen between Baghdad and Ankara, whose foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, warned Tuesday that if there is a threat to Turkey, “we are ready to use all our resources including a ground operation”.
As Iraqi forces advance, the United Nations said it has received reports of dozens of execution-type killings by IS in Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital.
Citing preliminary reports, the UN said those killed included 50 police officers who had been held hostage.
In Paris, French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian was meeting coalition counterparts, including Pentagon chief Ashton Carter, to review the war on IS after more than two years of air strikes, training and on-the- ground military advisers.
Besides coordinating their support for the forces closing in on Mosul, ministers also discussed the Syria side of the campaign and said they were “laying the groundwork” for the isolation of Raqa.
France is keen to tackle Raqa, where the 3,000 to 4,000 IS fighters include a contingent of around 300 French nationals whose potential return to France when the ‘caliphate’ disintegrates is considered a major national threat.
As the ministers met, Hollande warned that “the recapture is not an end in itself. — AFP