Iraqis Press Toward Mosul, Face Questions About Airstrike

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Iraq's elite counterterrorism forces advance toward Islamic State positions as fighting to retake the extremist-held city of Mosul enters its second week, in the village of Tob Zawa, outside Mosul, Monday, Oct. 24, 2016. A convoy of special forces advanced toward the village of Tob Zawa, Monday, encountering roadside bombs and trading heavy fire with the militants. Loudspeakers on the Humvees blared Iraqi patriotic music as they pushed toward the village. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)
Iraq’s elite counterterrorism forces advance toward Islamic State positions as fighting to retake the extremist-held city of Mosul enters its second week, in the village of Tob Zawa, outside Mosul, Monday, Oct. 24, 2016. A convoy of special forces advanced toward the village of Tob Zawa, Monday, encountering roadside bombs and trading heavy fire with the militants. Loudspeakers on the Humvees blared Iraqi patriotic music as they pushed toward the village. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)
BY QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA AND JOSEPH KRAUSS
BARTELLA, Iraq (AP) — U.S.-backed Iraqi forces fought their way inside two villages Monday as they crept closer to Mosul a week into an offensive to retake the Islamic State-held city, but they also faced questions over a suspected airstrike on a mosque that killed 13 people.

Iraqi special forces shelled militant positions before dawn near Bartella, a historically Christian town east of Mosul that they had retaken last week. With patriotic music blaring from loudspeakers on their Humvees, they then pushed into the village of Tob Zawa, about 9 kilometers (5½ miles) from Mosul, amid heavy clashes.

Until now, most of the fighting has been in largely uninhabited towns and villages, but the special forces found more than 70 civilians sheltering in Tob Zawa. They will encounter many more civilians as they get closer to Mosul, still home to more than 1 million people.

Abdeljabar Antar, who had remained in Tob Zawa with his wife and four children, said the IS militants had included foreign fighters “who spoke languages I don’t know – Russians, Pakistanis.” They had forced children to go to religious school and military training, and everyone had to attend prayers five times a day, he added.

In the days before the offensive, Antar said the village ran low on food and supplies, and that residents had to get permission from IS to leave.

“I hope life will return to the way it was before 2014,” he said, referring to the summer when IS militants swept across northern and central Iraq, capturing Mosul and surrounding towns.

The Iraqi Federal Police, a military-style force, pushed into a second village in the Shura district south of Mosul, where they fired a large anti-aircraft gun and rocket-propelled grenades. They later appeared to have secured the village, a cluster of squat homes on a desert plain, and handed out water and other aid to civilians.

The U.S.-led coalition said it had carried out six airstrikes Sunday near Mosul, destroying 19 fighting positions and 17 vehicles, as well as rocket and mortar launchers, artillery and tunnels.

Human Rights Watch called for an investigation into last week’s purported airstrike in northern Iraq that hit the women’s section of a Shiite mosque in the town of Daquq.

The strike happened amid a large Islamic State assault on nearby Kirkuk that appeared aimed at diverting attention from the fight for Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city.

The IS attack on Kirkuk, 170 kilometers (100 miles) southeast of Mosul, lasted for two days and killed at least 80 people, mainly members of the Kurdish security forces that took control of the city in 2014 as Iraqi forces crumbled amid an IS advance.

Human Rights Watch said Daquq’s residents believe Friday’s attack was an airstrike because of the extent of the destruction and because planes could be heard overhead. The New York-based group said at least 13 people were reported killed.

The coalition and the Iraqi military, which are waging the offensive, are the only parties known to be flying military aircraft over Iraq.

Col. John Dorrian, a U.S. military spokesman, said the coalition had “definitively determined” it did not conduct the airstrike that killed civilians in Daquq and had shared its findings with the Iraqi government, which is doing its own investigation.

“The Coalition uses precision munitions and an exhaustive process to reduce the possibility of civilian casualties and collateral damage because the preservation of civilian life is (of) paramount importance to us,” Dorrian said.

Iraqi Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool, spokesman for the Joint Military Command, confirmed the Iraqi government was investigating the attack. He declined to say whether Iraqi or coalition planes were in the area at the time.

Elsewhere in the country, Iraqi forces battled IS militants for a second day in the far western town of Rutba, hundreds of kilometers (miles) south of Mosul, after what appeared to be another Kirkuk-style assault.

Rasool said the situation in Rutba “is completely under control,” and the militants have no presence in the town.

But Dorrian, the coalition spokesman, said “Iraqi forces continue to attack the enemy with coalition air support” in Rutba and that “operations are ongoing.”

He said coalition airstrikes have destroyed five Islamic State vehicles and killed a “significant” number of militants in the town, located in sprawling Anbar province.

The IS-run Aamaq news agency posted video that it said showed fighters attacking a military position north of Rutba on Sunday. It said several groups of fighters had infiltrated the town, setting off two car bombs, while other militants attacked the perimeter. The claims could not be independently confirmed.

In Baghdad, meanwhile, a series of small bombings killed 11 people and wounded another 35, according to police and hospital officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

The campaign to retake Mosul comes after months of planning and involves more than 25,000 Iraqi troops, Kurdish forces, Sunni tribal fighters and state-sanctioned Shiite militias. It is expected to take weeks, if not months.

IS has suffered a series of setbacks in the past year, and Mosul is its last major urban bastion in Iraq.

© 2016 The Associated Press

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42 responses to “Iraqis Press Toward Mosul, Face Questions About Airstrike”

  1. 5thDrawer Avatar

    “With patriotic music blaring from loudspeakers on their Humvees” …..
    My God, they are living a Hollywood movie now.

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar

      “IS has suffered a series of setbacks in the past year,” …..
      DEFEATS, is what you want to say there. DEFEATS!!

      1. Hind Abyad Avatar
        Hind Abyad

        Nice read..’Video Paula Broadwell Leaks Info on Benghazi Annex is cut away with music err..noise.. i’ts like these people live their life in John Le Carré book.

        Why Did General John Allen Speak at DNC Convention For Hillary Clinton?https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2016/07/29/why-did-general-john-allen-speak-at-dnc-convention-for-hillary-clinton/

        For the Benghazi readers
        https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2014/06/18/for-benghazi-readers-and-researchers-ahmed-khattala-is-the-accidental-missing-link-from-libya-to-syria/

        Video CIA Operation “Zero Footprint”, Qatar, Benghazi and The Connection To Ahmed Abu Khattala – The Real Motive For The Obama Administration’s Recent Arrest…”video not available”
        https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2014/06/18/cia-operation-zero-footprint-qatar-benghazi-and-the-connection-to-ahmed-abu-khattala-is-the-real-motive-for-the-obama-administrations-recent-arrest/

        1. 5thDrawer Avatar

          That ‘not available’ video came from ‘Beck’ … here’s a note …
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIeEf0RxDlI

          1. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            In YouTube it dates from Oct.10.. should read the comments

    2. Hind Abyad Avatar
      Hind Abyad

      And why not, thank God it’s not Hollywood
      Iraqi forces liberate Christian towns from ISIS, stand within 10 miles of Mosul

      http://www.cbsnews.com/news/iraqi-forces-liberate-christian-towns-from-isis-within-10-miles-of-mosul/

    3. Hind Abyad Avatar
      Hind Abyad

      And why not, thank God it’s not Hollywood

      Iraqi forces liberate Christian towns from ISIS, stand within 10 miles of Mosul

      http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ir

  2. Hind Abyad Avatar
    Hind Abyad

    YaLibnan, i don’t need to come here anymore. I can read your eternal Western Press, if i need on Western Press
    QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA writes for the Times of Israel.

    Joseph Kraus was CEO of JotSpot, which was purchased by Google in 2006. Kraus has been director of product management at Google. Among his projects there is OpenSocial, Google’s effort to develop API standards for social networking platforms. FaceBook and Twiter Google Venture. Wall Street Journal. New York Times etc..

    1. Rudy1947 Avatar

      Don’t let the door hit you in the tush.

      1. MekensehParty Avatar
        MekensehParty

        What will she do with her life if she stops hanging in here?

        1. Hind Abyad Avatar
          Hind Abyad

          To every rule there is an exception, and an idiot is ready to demonstrate it.
          Expand your idiotie..

          1. 5thDrawer Avatar

            Y K did. 😉

          2. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            Y Krist irrelevant 😉

        2. Killing herself? Undergoing sex change surgery? Going back to Lebanon to support Aoun’s presidential bid? Painting a life-size portrait of Putin french-kissing with Assad, Jr.? The possibilities are truly limitless. 🙂

      2. Hind Abyad Avatar
        Hind Abyad

        I’m free to read Western Zionist media is that your complaint? Dissolve yourself

        1. Rudy1947 Avatar

          No complaint, just wishing you a swift journey.

          1. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            Blocking is swift.. blocked

    2. “YaLibnan, i don’t need to come here anymore”
      Is that a promise? Given the overall Arab record on these, allow me to remain sceptical. 🙂

  3. Hind Abyad Avatar
    Hind Abyad

    They don’t specify which Kurds..

  4. They are avoiding the Russia approach of carpet bombing the entire city regardless of civilians? The sectarians are OK with that ,but the US wants to protect civilians as much as possible..
    Aleppo ‘moonscape’
    http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e8a_1477241998

    1. Hind Abyad Avatar
      Hind Abyad

      That’s childish.. have you serious access to news?
      “Drone footage released by a pro-rebel media group based in Aleppo shows the extend of the destruction of the city.” Uhh..

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyYI0wtwmMc

      1. 5thDrawer Avatar

        Remember, We are all ‘Goyim’ … See at 3:17 …
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9MxuUOj2vU

        1. Hind Abyad Avatar
          Hind Abyad

          Yes that’s it, boy Gog we Goyem

          1. 5thDrawer Avatar

            Next segment ‘explains’ how he became ‘the one’ …

          2. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            So i’m a prophet.
            Gog/Obama attacks Israel after Rapture – Improved Subtitles
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rabQuM6giLo

        2. Rudy1947 Avatar

          I like the guy in the white shirt, back left. Sneering, shaking his head. Reminds me of “not another nut in the house”.

          1. 5thDrawer Avatar

            Yup … but he doesn’t dare say ‘What a crock ~’.

        3. “Remember, We are all ‘Goyim’ ”

          With all due respect, mate (and I’m not really sure about the amount due), your gentilism is not your defining characteristic by far. In fact, it’s not even secondary or teriary. 🙂

          1. 5thDrawer Avatar

            ‘But we’re not fighting in Lebanon ..’
            ‘That’s ok … we’ll be back..’
            Great school experiences to look forward to. Eh? Such confidence in a small kid.

        4. are you kidding? bringing up a single rabbi’s lesson for an article on the Syrian massacre of its own people?
          you belong in the Dark Ages.

          1. He belongs to the anti-zionist (I mean the hidden antisemit).
            Anti-Semitic brainwashing for Muslim children
            https://youtu.be/fyvGAVVnwUE

            Religion stands in the way of equality and freedom.

          2. 5thDrawer Avatar

            Well … at least in some methodologies of teaching about it, yes.

          3. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            Tell that to that Rabbi.

          4. Just realized that he is from the anti Israel haredim famous in Israel for two things: welfare benefits and child abuse. This kid probably got an “invitation” to do some “late night learning” after class (G d forbid, but most likely true). Dozens of these people (out of maybe 3000 worldwide) are in prison for sex abuse, child abuse and tax dodging.
            nice pick. invite him over some time to talk Israeli politics, but hide the kids. seriously.

          5. 5thDrawer Avatar

            There was one kid there just hanging on every word … sad.

          6. 5thDrawer Avatar

            Sometimes I begin to believe a whole lot of people I don’t wish to know, or hear from, actually do. What can I say? Where do dreams come from?
            When I was a kid, I had one that woke me up all the time. No-one asked me to publish it.
            Although, I can’t say it was something a Nation would be interested in …. hmmmm … the fact I remember it probably means it was enough trauma in itself.

          7. Hind Abyad Avatar
            Hind Abyad

            “As late as 1943, while the Jews of Europe were being exterminated in their millions, the US Congress proposed to set up a commission to “study” the problem. Rabbi Stephen Wise, who was the principal American spokesperson for Zionism, came to Washington to testify against the rescue bill because it would divert attention from the colonization of Palestine.

            This is the same Rabbi Wise who, in 1938, in his capacity as leader of the American Jewish Congress, wrote a letter in which he opposed any change in US immigration laws which would enable Jews to find refuge”

          8. Rudy1947 Avatar

            I’m sure the folks in Mosul are very concerned about the Rabbi and will stop in their tracks and and buy one of the books that reference his decisions. Perhaps Syria will find it in their hearts to stop any aerial bombardment and read the book themselves.

  5. Hind Abyad Avatar
    Hind Abyad

    Anti-IS troops are gaining ground on multiple fronts in Iraq.

    Forces are converging from all directions to expel the Islamic State (IS) from the strategic city of Mosul in Iraq. Some troops are within 5 miles of the city, officials report, while others are making their way through many areas of Ninevah province that are still under IS control.
    http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/10/mosul-operation-iraq-nineveh.html

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