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Iraqi troops in full control of Qayyarah near Mosul

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qayyarah-controlIraqi forces have managed to recapture the northern town of Qayyarah from the grip of the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group in their push to conduct a major liberation operation in the nearby city of Mosul.

“We control all parts of the town and managed, in very limited time, to root out Daesh,” Lieutenant General Riyadh Jalal Tawfik, who commands Iraq’s ground forces, was quoted by AFP as saying on Thursday.

The commander further noted that engineering units were clearing Qayyarah of unexploded ordnance and improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

The Iraqi troops launched the Qayarah operation on Tuesday, more than a month after retaking the Qayyarah air field,

Qayyarah, which fell to Daesh in 2014, lies on the western bank of Tigris River, some 60 kilometers (35 miles) south of Mosul. The town is expected to be used as a launchpad for the upcoming operation in Mosul.

Abadi hails Qayyarah liberation

Iraqi Prime Minster Haider al-Abadi also issued a statement, in which he described the Qayyarah recapture as a major move by the army on the road to Mosul, the last remaining bastion for Daesh in the north of the country.

He also congratulated the Iraqi people on the liberation of Qayyarah and its neighboring areas.

“Our heroic forces achieved a big victory, an important step towards the liberation of Mosul,” Abadi said.

Meanwhile, Iraq’s Ministry of Defense said the army’s 9th division and the country’s elite special forces took part in the offensive in Qayyarah, which was supported by the US-led coalition’s air cover.

The Iraqi army is gearing up for a major offensive in late September to purge Daesh from Mosul, the country’s second city. Iraqi forces have managed to wrest control of several areas in the southern parts of the city.

Kurdish Peshmerga forces liberate 6 villages east of Mosul

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This photo provided by Kurdish-language Rudaw television network shows Kurdish Peshmerga forces during an anti-Daesh military operation in Khazar region, northern Iraq, on August 14, 2016.

This photo provided by Kurdish-language Rudaw television network shows Kurdish Peshmerga forces during an anti-Daesh military operation in Khazar region, northern Iraq, on August 14, 2016.

Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces have liberated five villages near Mosul from Takfiri Daesh militants as army troops and allied fighters are battling to drive the terrorists out of the militant-held northern city.

Peshmerga launched an operation in Khazar region east of Mosul at around 5:30 a.m. local time (0230 GMT) on Sunday, and managed to establish full control over the villages of Tal Hamid, Qarqasha, Abzakh and Dasht Takh following fierce exchanges of gunfire with Daesh militants, Kurdish-language Rudaw television network reported.

The report added that two vehicles rigged with explosives were destroyed during the operations. It, however, stopped short of specifying casualties on the ranks of Daesh Takfiris and Kurdish forces.

Kurdish sources, requesting anonymity, said Peshmerga troopers are poised to recapture at least 11 villages from Daesh during Sunday’s offensive.

Having suffered severe blows on the battleground near Mosul, Daesh terrorists have stepped up their acts of terror against civilians and security forces there.

In another development on Saturday, Iraqi media quoted Amir Wasiq, a senior police official in Nineveh Province, as saying that Daesh militants executed 60 ex-officers for cooperating with Iraqi intelligence services in an area south of Mosul.

Mosul fell into the hands of the Takfiri terrorists in June 2014 when they launched an offensive in Iraq.

Hisham al-Hashimi, a consultant to the Baghdad government on the anti-Daesh campaign, recently said a large-scale offensive for the liberation of Mosul was slated for late September.

Last week, Defense Minister Khalid al-Obeidi said high-ranking Daesh militant commanders and their families had sold their belongings and fled Mosul as Iraqi forces were closing in on the city.

The Iraqi army and fighters from the Popular Mobilization units have been engaged in joint operations to retake militant-held regions.

Source: presstv.com

Iraqi Forces Link Up South Of Mosul, Tightening Control On Islamic State

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A member of Iraqi government forces inspects a wreckage on the side of a road Qayara Air Base late last month.

A member of Iraqi government forces inspects a wreckage on the side of a road Qayara Air Base late last month.

Iraqi government forces advancing toward the city of Mosul, which is held by the extremist Islamic State (IS) group, retook a village from the militants on July 12, linking up along the Tigris River with army troops that have been advancing from a separate direction.

Iraq’s Defense Minister Khalid al-Obeidi said the territorial gain further isolates Mosul ahead of a planned government assault to recapture the northern city.

The advance to the south of Mosul brought the village of Ajhala back under government control to the north of the Qayara Air Base, which was retaken by government forces on July 9.

It also cuts off IS fighters near Mosul that are now in towns behind the front lines of government forces.

The development comes a day after U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said during a visit to Baghdad that 560 more U.S. soldiers are being deployed at Qayara Air Base to establish a combat staging hub for the long-awaited battle to recapture Mosul from IS militants.

Based on reporting by Retuers, AP, and AFP

Iraq killed 1,300 Daesh militants in Mosul operations: Defense chief

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Iraqi forces inspect a building formerly used by Daesh terrorists as a home-made bomb making factory as they patrol the liberated city of Fallujah on June 23, 2016. ©AFP

Iraqi forces inspect a building formerly used by Daesh terrorists as a home-made bomb making factory as they patrol the liberated city of Fallujah on June 23, 2016. ©AFP

(Presstv) Iraq’s defense minister says at least 1,300 Takfiri terrorists have been killed in the military operations to liberate the southern parts of Mosul, the main Daesh stronghold in the country.

Speaking at a Saturday press conference, Khaled al-Obeidi also said estimates by senior Iraqi officials show Mosul and other militant-held regions will be liberated “within a year.”

Mosul, located some 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of the capital, Baghdad, fell into the hands of Daesh terrorists in June 2014 in the first stage of terrorists’ advance through Iraq.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has promised that the liberation of Mosul is very close as it is the Iraqi forces’ “next destination” after the liberation of Fallujah, a strategic western city.

On June 18, Iraqi forces launched an offensive against Daesh terrorists to retake the southern part of Mosul and the town of Qayyarah, one day after they retook Fallujah.

Iraqi forces managed to raise their national flag on the main government complex of Fallujah on June 17. Later in the day, Abadi congratulated the nation on the liberation of the city.

The commander of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization forces, Hadi al-Ameri, said Friday that Fallujah is days away from being fully cleared from Daesh militants.

Tens of thousands of people have fled Fallujah amid heavy fighting in the city. Before being driven out, Daesh militants were using civilians as human shields to slow down army advances in the areas.

The Iraqi army is now screening 20,000 people that have left Fallujah, located roughly 69 kilometers (43 miles) west of Baghdad, to prevent the remaining terrorists from escaping among the civilians.

An unnamed spokesman for Iraq’s Joint Operations Command said on Saturday that a total of 2,185 Daesh suspects have been detained on the basis of testimonies or other information, noting that 11,605 were released and about 7,000 are still undergoing checks.

The northern and western parts of Iraq have been plagued by gruesome violence ever since Daesh terrorists mounted an offensive in the country in June 2014.

Iraqi government forces, backed by fighters from allied Popular Mobilization Units, have been pushing the militants out of the country’s territory.

Syria captures Turkish aid cargo heading to Daesh ISIS in Iraq

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A frame grab of Syrian intelligence forces inspecting a captured Daesh-bound lorry full of medicine in Aleppo

A frame grab of Syrian intelligence forces inspecting a captured Daesh-bound lorry full of medicine in Aleppo

Syrian intelligence forces say that they have captured a haul of medical supplies near Aleppo that came from Turkey and was destined for Daesh terrorists in the Iraqi city of Mosul.

In a video released by Russia’s RT television network on Friday, Hussein al-Omar, a colonel in Syria’s Military Intelligence Directorate, said that the lorry, loaded with some 25 tons of medicine and hospital supplies, including a number of dialysis machines, had entered Syria from Turkey’s Bab al-Hawa international border crossing, located on Syria’s northwestern border with Turkey.

He added that the lorry was planned to reach Mosul, Daesh’s de facto capital in Iraq, through the towns of Afrin, A’zaz, and Manbij in Aleppo province. According to Omar, the lorry, loaded in Turkey, bore a Syrian number plate and was driven by two militants from al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front terrorist group, who had received the cargo in the Bab al-Hawa border crossing.

“Through an intelligence operation, we lured them from Afrin to Nubl, arrested them, and brought them here. All of this proves that Turkey is supporting the terrorists, especially Daesh, with meds and all supplies, even with weapons,” the Syrian official further said.

The much-needed aid would be delivered to Aleppo’s local maternity hospital, which sustained damage in a recent shelling attack launched by the Takfiri terrorists, he added.

Turkey has time and again been accused of aiding and abetting militant groups operating in Syria with reports saying that Ankara actively trains and arms the Takfiri militants there, and facilitates their safe passage into the Arab country. Ankara has also been accused of buying smuggled oil from Daesh.

fb8ca0fb-e542-41c4-a406-1e24caa3ccdcLast year, Russia released satellite images showing long lines of trucks carrying oil from Syria’s Daesh-controlled parts into Turkey. Ankara, however, has rejected the allegations.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. The United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimates that over 400,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which has also displaced over half of the Arab country’s pre-war population of about 23 million.

Mosul: another Turkey’s False-Flag Operation allegedly ISIS missile hits Turkish tank

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57162d81c3618802028b4581A dramatic video, showing what appears to be a direct hit on an alleged Turkish tank by an anti-tank guided missile outside Mosul, Iraq, has been uploaded online by a pro-Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) news outlet.

The video has been published online by the pro-IS outlet Amaq, claiming it was filmed near Mount Bashiqah outside Mosul, Iraq, where fierce firefights between Turkish forces and IS militants were taking place earlier this year. The date of April 19, 2016, is also mentioned at the beginning of the clip.

The footage shows the missile of an unreported type fired and guided by an operator. It ejects from the launcher and quickly approaches a tank, said to be Turkish, on top of a lightly-fortified hill. Moments later, the missile strikes the tank’s turret, followed by a powerful explosion and a bright flash.

Fragments of the turret armor are blown sky-high, with clouds of dark smoke coming from inside the hull – accompanied by the jihadists’ triumphant shouts.

It was unclear if anyone from the crew managed to survive as the clip ends abruptly.

According to previous media reports, Turkey has deployed troops to northern Iraq, citing what it perceived as heightened security risks outside Bashiqa, where its soldiers have been training an Iraqi militia to fight IS. Baghdad strongly objected to the deployment.

https://youtu.be/8oersZov_TQ

US Destroy Turkish consulate in Mosul To cover-up & destroy Evedance of Turkish Invasion of Mosul “ISIL-HQ”

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n_97265_1ISIL use Turkish consulate as headquarter to communicate directly with Ankara

Aircraft from a U.S.-led coalition have destroyed the Turkish consulate compound in Mosul, which has been occupied by fighters of the Islamist State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) since June 2014, the Turkish Foreign Ministry has said.

“The compound of our Mosul Consulate-General, which has been under DAESH [ISIL] occupation since 2014 and where, according to intelligence, high-level DAESH terrorists were occupying, was targeted and destroyed by war aircraft belonging to members of the International Coalition for the Fight against DAESH at 3 a.m. on April 4,” the Foreign Ministry said in a written statement issue early on April 4.

Around three months ago, U.S. officials contacted Ankara and informed that they had intelligence affirming that ISIL had turned the consulate general building virtually into “a headquarters,” and asked for permission to hit the building.

ISIL militants stormed Turkey’s consulate general in Mosul on June 11, 2014, taking hostage then-Consul General Öztürk Yılmaz, now a member of the parliament for the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), along with 48 other people. After being held for 101 days, the hostages were finally freed on Sept. 20, 2014, likely as a result of a swap deal that was not denied by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

April/04/2016

 

Islamic State ISIS hijacks Mosul University chemistry lab for bombs making

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f56ff9b17a77f6_56ff9b17a782c.thumbIslamic State has been using a well-stocked university chemistry lab in Mosul, Iraq, for the past year to concoct a new generation of explosive devices and train militants to make them, according to US and Iraqi military officials and two people familiar with the university, The Wall Street Journal reported.
General Hatem Magsosi, Iraq’s top explosives officer, said the facilities at the University of Mosul have enhanced Islamic State’s ability to launch attacks in Iraq and to export bomb-making know-how when its fighters leave the so-called caliphate and return to their home countries.

The weaponry churned out includes peroxide-based chemical bombs and suicide-bomb vests like the ones used in the Brussels attacks and by at least some of the Paris attackers, according to the general and others in the Iraqi military, as well as an official from the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State.
Other bombs made include nitrate-based explosives and chemical weapons, Gen. Magsosi said.

“The University of Mosul is the best Daesh research center in the world,” the general said, using another name for Islamic State. “Trainees go to Raqqa, [Syria], then to Mosul university to use the existing facilities.”

Its current status isn’t clear, however. The U.S.-led coalition has targeted the campus with airstrikes more than once, most recently on March 19.

“We do know that Daesh has used some of those buildings for military purposes and we bombed them,” said Col. Steve Warren,spokesman for the U.S. military in Iraq.

The Pentagon said March 19 it was targeting an Islamic State weapons-storage facility and headquarters, but gave no more detail.

Colonel Warren said the Mosul bomb-making labs are among the biggest that Islamic State has established. He said the university has a sprawling campus and the coalition would continue to target such facilities if they are identified.

Last week, the Pentagon said the U.S. military had killed a man they identified as one of Islamic State’s top military officials. It didn’t give any further information, but Gen. Magsosi said the man, known as Abu Eman, was the top expert at the Mosul bomb lab.

When Islamic State captured Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, in the summer of 2014, the university was one of the spoils. The university had a strong reputation around Iraq for its science departments, alumni say.
By March 2015, dozens of Islamic State engineers and scientists had set up a research hub in the chemistry lab, which was full of equipment and chemicals, according to the people with knowledge of the university.
Many of the regular staff, including professors specialized in organic, industrial and analytical chemistry, remained in the city at the time, but the new laboratories were staffed by Islamic State’s own men, according to one of those people.
At least since August, dozens of individuals—presumed to be foreigners because they didn’t speak Iraqi Arabic—were seen moving through the labs, the two people said. They said they were told specialized units had been set up there for chemical explosives and weapons research as well as suicide-bomb construction.
A separate group at the university’s technical college was dedicated to building suicide-bomb components, one of the two said.

During the same time frame, there has been a surge in Islamic State’s use of bombs that mix chemical precursors into an explosive powdery substance known as triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, both in Iraq and Europe.
It isn’t clear how many of these weapons, if any, can be traced to research or training conducted in Mosul.
General Magsosi says that his bomb-detection units called peroxide-based explosives the “Satan Recipe” because they are very hard to detect and they are usually so lethal.
It isn’t yet known whether the militants who carried out the Paris and Brussels attacks spent time at the Mosul facility during their time in Islamic State territory. Investigators say they suspect that at least one member of the network, Najim Laachraoui, made TATP-based explosives that were stuffed into suicide belts and suitcases and used in those attacks.

Thousands of Iraqi civilians flee Mosul, As Iraqi army launched a major offensive

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Thousands-of-Iraqis-flee-fighting-south-of-Mosul-Mar-26-2016-afp(AFP) MAKHMOUR— Thousands of desperate civilians were fleeing fighting Sunday on the new front opened by Iraqi forces against the Islamic State group south of the city of Mosul.

Families crammed in the back of pickup trucks, sometimes bringing dead and wounded with them, emerged from the dust after crossing the front line and were met by Kurdish forces.

Iraqi army troops and allied paramilitary fighters on Thursday launched a major offensive aimed at retaking the northern Nineveh province, the capital of which, Mosul, is the main hub of IS in Iraq.

The forces have been advancing from their base in Makhmur towards the town of Qayyarah, about 60 kilometres (35 miles) south of Mosul.

Growing numbers of civilians have been fleeing the advance to Makhmur where they are being assisted by Kurdish peshmerga forces.

“So far we have received around 3,000 people and the numbers are growing every day,” Ali Khodeir Ahmed, a member of Nineveh’s provincial council, told AFP in Makhmur.

“But there are no services offered to them by the Iraqi government, we have to put them up in a stadium in Makhmur,” he said.

The Iraqi government has described the advance as the first phase of what is expected to be a long and difficult operation to retake Mosul, the country’s second city and the largest urban centre in IS’s cross-border “caliphate”.

In the desert west of Makhmur, dust storms were whipped up by the line of vehicles fleeing IS-held territory, including a pickup carrying four women and 10 children in the back.

‘Entire families have died’

A bearded man in a yellow dishdasha traditional gown emerged from the dust, holding the body of a young girl wrapped in a blanket.

“She is dead, she is dead,” he cried, his face caked in dust.

His daughter, whose back was riddled with shrapnel when shells rained down on their escape, was covered in blood.

“Some entire families have died,” the father said.

The battle has so far focused on four villages west of Makhmur. Qayyarah, an area that includes a former air base and an oil facility, lies to the west, on the other bank of the Tigris River.

Smain Nuweis fled the village of Kharbardan with his family of seven squeezed into the back of his Opel.

“We have seen a lot of suffering,” the 28-year-old said. “And it got worse now with the shelling.”

“Daesh will not allow the people to flee, they want them to stay,” said Nuweis, using an Arabic name for IS.

The provincial council official urged the government to do more for the flow of displaced people, who were given little more than water upon reaching the peshmerga.

“We need to open camps and provide urgent assistance. These people’s situation is very bad, they were barely able to take any belongings with them,” said Ali Khodeir Ahmed.

More than 3.3 million people have been displaced by conflict in Iraq since the start of 2014, according to figures from the United Nations.

IS seized control of large parts of Iraq in 2014, with Iraqi forces collapsing in the face of a lightning advance. Backed by a US-led coalition, Iraq has been clawing back territory from the jihadists in recent months.

Iraq sends more troops north for planned offensive to retake Mosul

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Iraqi army forces. Photo: Wikimedia

Iraqi army forces. Photo: Wikimedia

BAGHDAD,— Iraq sent more troops north on Sunday to prepare for an offensive the government has pledged to launch this year to retake the city of Mosul from the Islamic State (IS).

Hundreds of forces from the army’s 15th division have already massed at Makhmour base, 70 km (45 miles) south of Mosul, and more forces, including Sunni Muslim tribal fighters, were expected to arrive in the coming days.

Accompanied by a large number of Humvees and armored vehicles, hundreds of troops of the army’s 71st Brigade left Taji camp, north of Baghdad heading for Makhmour as military build-up continues ahead of the offensive.

“We are here today to bid farewell to Mosul liberation troops. This is the first batch of 71st brigades. The troops are heading to Nineveh preceded by three battalions, which are based at Makhmour camp. Thank God, preparations are on and the morale of fighters is high. The movement of troops will continue,” said Minister of Defense Khaled al-Obeidi who oversaw the movement of troops.

Obaidi told Reuters last month that Iraq would launch the Mosul operation in the first half of the year and Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has said 2016 would see the “final victory” against the militants.

Some U.S. officials have endorsed that assessment, but a top U.S. intelligence officer told Congress last week any operation to retake Mosul would be long and complex and unlikely to finish this year.

Asked if the Shiite Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) known in Arabic as Hashid Shaabi would take part in the Mosul offensive, Obeidi said the decision has to be made by Abadi in his capacity as the general commander of the armed forces.

“The decision is up to the general commander of the armed forces. He has the final say. If he sees a need for Hashid, they will take part and if not, they will not take part,” he said.

Hashid Shaabi, is a loosely knit coalition of mostly Iran-backed Shiite militias set up to fight IS. The government sidelined the PMF in the Ramadi battle to ensure air support from the U.S. which is reluctant to be seen fighting on the same side as the Iranian-backed militias.

With more than a million people still living there, Mosul is the largest city controlled by IS, which declared a ‘caliphate’ in swathes of territory it seized in Iraq and neighboring Syria in 2014.

Retaking it would be a huge boost for Iraqi forces who, backed by air strikes from a U.S.-led coalition, reclaimed the western city of Ramadi from IS in late December.

Mosul, however, is a far larger city with a populace made up of many sects. And even in Ramadi, Iraqi forces are still working to secure that city and its environs.

Copyright ©, respective author or news agency, Reuters