In final stages of Mosul fight, U.S. plays an ever-larger role

MOSUL, Iraq — The day after Iraq’s prime minister declared an end to the Islamic State group’s caliphate, U.S. Army Col. Pat Work and a small team of about a dozen soldiers drove through western Mosul in two unmarked armored vehicles to warn Iraqi forces of a pressing threat: friendly fire.

The American colonel had a series of urgent faceto-face meetings with generals from the Iraqi army, the federal police and the Iraqi special forces ahead of a major offensive Saturday morning to drive out the remaining ISIS positions in Mosul.

American troops are taking on an increasingly prominent role in the fight. Once largely restricted to working within highly fortified Iraqi bases, U.S. commanders now travel in and around Mosul with small teams of soldiers, sharing intelligence and advising plans of attack, revealing how the U.S. role in Iraq has steadily deepened throughout the operation to retake the country’s second largest city.

The gains in the Old City bringing Iraqi troops closer to victory against ISIS in Mosul also have meant the three branches of the country’s security forces are now fighting in closer quarters than ever before.

“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,” Work said.

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.

“There is no substitute for seeing it with your own eyes ... for talking to the stake holders who are in it making the decisions,” Work said. “ISIS has no boundaries, so our adviser network can’t have any boundaries.”