Arbil: Iraqi and Kurdish forces launched a new offensive Sunday on a town near Mosul as part of a massive operation aimed at retaking the country’s second largest city from Daesh. The Kurdish forces, known as peshmerga, said they launched a dawn offensive on two fronts to the northeast of Mosul, near the town of Bashiqa.
Maj. Gen. Haidar Fadhil, of Iraq’s special forces, said they had also launched an assault on Bashiqa, surrounding it and seizing parts of the town. He said the Kurds had captured two villages near Bashiqa and a small Shiite shrine in the area.
Over the last week, Iraqi and Kurdish forces have been battling Daesh in a belt of mostly uninhabited towns and villages around Mosul, contending with roadside bombs, snipers and suicide truck bombs.
The Mosul offensive involves more than 25,000 Iraqi ground forces as well as US-led coalition aircraft and advisers. It is expected to take weeks, if not months, to drive Daesh from Mosul, which is home to more than a million civilians.
Bashiqa is close to a military base of the same name where some 500 Turkish troops are training Sunni and Kurdish fighters for the Mosul offensive.
The presence of the Turkish troops has angered Iraq, which says it never gave them permission to enter the country and has called on them to withdraw. Turkey has refused the demand, insisting that it play a role in retaking Mosul from Daesh.
US Defense Secretary Ash Carter has visited both countries in recent days, and arrived in the Kurdish regional capital Arbil on Sunday, where he was expected to discuss the issue with Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani.
After meeting with Turkey’s leaders, Carter had announced an “agreement in principle” for Turkey to have a role in the operation.
But Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi appeared to bat that idea down when he met with Carter on Saturday, insisting that Mosul was an “Iraqi battle.”
“I know that the Turks want to participate, we tell them thank you, this is something the Iraqis will handle and the Iraqis will liberate Mosul and the rest of the territories,” he said.
On Sunday, Carter met with Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani, as well as US service members who are not far from the battle.
The Pentagon chief praised the efforts of the Kurdish forces, known as peshmerga, and acknowledged their battle losses.
“They fight extremely well. But because they’re fighting hard, they suffer ... casualties,” said Carter, who spent Saturday in Baghdad getting updates from his military leadership and meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi. The US is prepared to provide additional support for the fight if requested by Iraq and US commanders, Carter said in the capital.
The peshmerga are advancing toward Mosul from the north in long columns of armored vehicles and other trucks. More than 100 US special operations forces are embedded with the Kurds and Iraqi military commandos.
Mosul is a Sunni majority town, and many worry about the involvement of government-sanctioned Shiite fighters. But they also are suspicious about the Kurds, who have ambitions to expand their self-rule area into parts of Ninevah province, where Mosul is located - although not to the city itself.
US military officials say the peshmerga will stop their advance about 30 kilometres outside of Mosul and hold that territory to ensure the militants don’t regroup. Shiite militias have said they will not enter the city itself.
Daesh captured Mosul and the surrounding area during a lightning advance across northern Iraq in the summer of 2014.
