As Mosul’s battlefield shrinks, US warns of friendly fire Iraqi prime minister thanks top Shiite cleric for role in anti-Daesh war
MOSUL, Iraq: US Army Col. Pat Work and a small team of about a dozen soldiers drove through western Mosul in two unmarked armored vehicles. Iraq’s Prime Minister had just declared the end of the Daesh group’s caliphate the day before, but the fighting was still raging on as Iraqi forces prepared for another big push Saturday morning.
The American colonel had a series of urgent calls to make: To talk faceto-face with generals from the Iraqi army, the federal police and the Iraqi special forces. While the gains in the Old City are bringing Iraqi troops closer to victory against Daesh in Mosul, they also mean three branches of the country’s security forces are now fighting in closer quarters than ever before. The new battle space and lingering communication shortcomings mean Iraqi ground troops are at increased risk of being hit by nonprecision fires like mortars and artillery by their partner Iraqi forces, he explained.
Throughout the course of the day, Work shuttled between bases and command centers inside the city meeting with Iraqi commanders deep inside Mosul, underscoring the increasingly prominent US role in the offensive as it enters its final days.
“It’s a very violent close fight,” said Work, the commander of the 82nd Airborne’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team who deployed to Iraq in January.
“When the bullets aren’t enough the commanders want to turn to high explosives which might be mortars or artillery... so understanding where the other guy is all the time is kinda rule No. 1, so the lethal effect is directed at the target and not accidentally at another player that’s on your team.”
The various forces that make up Iraq’s military have long struggled with coordination. While the Mosul operation is overseen by a joint operations command and the prime minister, forces on the ground maintain independent command structures, standards and cultures. The Mosul fight is the first time all three forces have had to cooperate in an urban environment and throughout the operation the army, federal police and special forces have faced deadly setbacks when they acted independently, allowing Daesh fighters to concentrate their defenses on a single front.
“We’re helping (Iraqi forces) see across the boundaries between their different units... just helping them understand where they are and how rapidly things might be changing.” said Work.
One of Work’s stops was at a modest house in a residential west Mosul neighborhood. About a dozen US troops and Iraqi soldiers were hunched over computers identifying Daesh targets just a few hundred meters away ahead of the next day’s operation. The presence of US forces at the small patrol base deep inside Mosul is a level of support that had not been authorized when the Mosul fight first began.
Under the administration of US President Donald Trump, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis moved US combat advisers closer to the fight by authorizing US troops to partner with Iraqi forces at the battalion level.
The US-led coalition’s fight against Daesh in Iraq has slowly expanded over the past three years from a campaign of airstrikes carried out by coalition forces who largely stayed within heavily fortified bases to an operation with some 6,000 American troops on the ground, many operating close to frontline fighting. The evolution suggests that despite a large training program designed to generate enough soldiers to retake Mosul, coalition officials assessed Iraqi forces lacked the tactical skills to conduct the operation without close support. Between meetings, as Work’s vehicle rolled through a traffic circle in western Mosul, he said being on the ground beside his Iraqi counterparts is essential.
“For any commander, there is no substitute for seeing it with your own eyes... for talking to the stakeholders who are in it making the decisions every day,” he said. “ISIS (Daesh) has no boundaries, so our adviser network can’t have any boundaries. And so part of it is getting out there daily to see it.”
Work’s one-on-one meetings inside Mosul come with a huge operational footprint. During his visit, Friday a team of dozens of US soldiers — most young men on their first deployment — provided him security and handled logistics. At each patrol base inside Mosul where US troops work with Iraqi forces there can be dozens to over a hundred soldiers deployed to protect a team of just 10 advisers.
With the vast majority of Mosul retaken from Daesh, soldiers trained by the coalition to fight in combat are now transitioning to act as hold forces to help provide security. Even after the last pockets of the city are retaken, Work said he does not expect that will necessarily mean an end to the US role in Mosul.
“Mosul is going to be a challenge, Daesh is going to continue to challenge the hold.” He said US troops would continue to facilitate coordination and provide advice just as they did during the offensive.
“We will continue to help Iraqi commanders recognize that this is what you fought for.”
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi on Friday thanked Iraq’s top Shiite cleric for his role in the war against terrorists, crediting him with saving the country and setting the stage for victory.
Three days after Mosul fell to Daesh in 2014, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani called on Iraqis to volunteer to fight the militants, a step that helped to halt their sweeping offensive.
But the call also leaves a complicated legacy, leading to a resurgence of Shiite militias that have carried out abuses and the establishment of new paramilitary groups, both of which could be a source of future instability.
Al-Abadi issued a statement expressing his “deep thanks and gratitude” to Al-Sistani for “his great and continuing support to the heroic fighters.”
The cleric’s 2014 call for volunteers “saved Iraq and paved the way for victory” over Daesh, Al-Abadi said
Al-Sistani made the call via a representative speaking at Friday prayers on June 13, 2014, days after multiple Iraqi divisions collapsed in the face of the Daesh assault in the north.
“Citizens who are able to bear arms and fight terrorists, defending their country and their people and their holy places, should volunteer and join the security forces to achieve this holy purpose,” he said.
It sparked a flood of volunteers who were organized under what became known as the Hashed Al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization forces — an umbrella group for progovernment paramilitaries that is officially under the command of the country’s premier.
But pre-existing Shiite militias that took part in the brutal SunniShiite sectarian bloodshed that plagued Iraq in past years were also placed under the Hashed Al-Shaabi banner and have played a major role in operations against Daesh.
These groups provided a pool of capable fighters that Baghdad could rely on to combat Daesh.
But they have also carried out abuses including kidnappings and summary executions in Sunni Arab areas that ultimately undermine Iraq’s efforts to counter the terrorists.
The Hashed may also have a political impact, with some commanders potentially seeking to translate military success into political capital in the 2018 parliamentary elections.