ISIS/ISIL conflict in Syria/Iraq (No OpEd, No Politics)

Jura said:

now updating
Thursday at 8:50 PM

about Mosul, Iraq just with:

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The U.S. military on Tuesday backed up Iraqi claims that eastern Mosul has been liberated after 100 days of urban combat marked by incessant ISIS counterattacks, more than 550 U.S. airstrikes, lulls in the fighting and tactical resets.

After a meeting Monday in Baghdad with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, Sheikh Humam Hamoudi, the deputy speaker of Parliament, said, “We completed the total liberation of the left bank of Mosul and this is a gift to the Iraqi people.”

In statements Tuesday,

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Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, commander of Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve, said that clearing operations are still underway in the eastern half of the city, which is split by the Tigris River, and warned of tougher fighting ahead in the more densely populated western sector.

However, the progress thus far is “a monumental achievement for not only the Iraqi Security Forces and sovereign government of Iraq, but all Iraqi people,” he said.

“This would have been a difficult task for any army in the world,” Townsend said of the Mosul offensive to oust the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria that began Oct. 17.

“And to see how far the Iraqis have come since 2014, not only militarily, but in their ability to put their differences aside and focus on a common enemy, gives real hope to the people of Iraq that — after years of fighting and instability — peace and security are attainable,” he said.

Townsend cautioned that there is a “long way to go” before Mosul is fully liberated. “The fight for western Mosul is likely to be even tougher than the eastern side,” he said.

The first few weeks of the Mosul offensive focused on clearing the outskirts and isolating the city, with the ISF pushing from the south and Kurdish Peshmerga forces from the east and north.

Elite Iraqi Counter Terror Services units then passed through Kurdish lines to make the first attacks into the city, but the drive frequently stalled as ISIS attacked with car bombs, or Vehicle Borne Improvised Exploding Devices. The VBIED attacks averaged five per day, the U.S. said.

U.S. officials also said that ISIS has mounted what was described as a “three-dimensional defense — from rooftops, from the streets, and from a maze of tunnels.

The offensive in the eastern sector paused in mid-December as the Iraqis regrouped and drew up a new plan with the aid of hundreds of more U.S. advisers.

When the attack resumed Dec. 29, the drive by the CTS into the eastern sector was joined by units of the ISF and the Iraqi federal police pushing from the south to divide the ISIS defenders.

Since Oct. 17, U.S. and coalition aircraft have carried out 558 airstrikes in assistance of the ISF, using 10,115 munitions against ISIS, according to CJTF-OIR.

The airstrikes have destroyed at least 151 vehicle bombs, 361 buildings or facilities, 140 tunnels, 408 vehicles, 392 bunkers, 24 anti-air artillery systems, and 315 artillery or mortar systems.

Iraqi commanders at times during the offensive have said they were taking heavy casualties in the drive on Mosul, but they have yet to release official figures. The Iraqi commanders also claimed to have killed more than 2,000 ISIS fighters.

Before the offensive began, a U.S. military spokesman said that 3,000 to 5,000 ISIS fighters were in Mosul, but officials have cautioned that the estimates were only preliminary.

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Jura said:

Yesterday at 7:56 AM
plus Eastern Mosul Liberated: Now Comes the Hard Part

source is DodBuzz

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Miragedriver said:

List of lost Leopard II tanks in Syria

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delft said:

Source?

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Miragedriver said:

List of ...

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Jura said:

(related to the ISIL action against Government in

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):

... as of now, ISIL probably in Panorama Base, in Cemetery, ...
EDIT after zooming in ... ISIL not in University nor Hospital:

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1. Government reinforcements arriving (by helos up from
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   )
2. ISIL getting bombed in Deir Ezzor area
3. ISIL defending
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   area)

Jura said:

Jan 17, 2017

now
Syria Talks in Astana Close with Pledge to Safeguard Truce

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A powerful jihadist group has crushed a Free Syrian Army rebel faction in northwestern Syria, in an attack that threatens to deal a critical blow to the more moderate wing of the Syrian rebellion and derail new Russian-backed peace talks.

The Jabhat Fateh al-Sham jihadist group, formerly known as the Nusra Front, launched an attack on a number of FSA groups in northwestern Syria on Tuesday, accusing them of conspiring against it at peace talks in Kazakhstan this week.

The fighting has engulfed the rebels' last major territorial stronghold in northwestern Syria, prompting a major Islamist insurgent faction to warn on Wednesday that it could allow President Bashar al-Assad and his allies to capture the area.

Officials with two FSA factions said Fateh al-Sham had overrun areas held by the Jaish al-Mujahideen group west of Aleppo. One of the officials said he expected other FSA factions to face the same fate unless they could get better organized to defend themselves - something they have so far failed to do.

The Syrian insurgency has been hamstrung from the outset by divisions among rebel groups fighting Assad, including the ideological split over whether to pursue Sunni jihadist goals or the more nationalist agenda backed by FSA groups.

"Nusra wants to end the FSA," said the FSA official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. If it succeeded, "the ones who attended Astana will be finished", he added, referring to the talks in Kazakhstan.

Those talks were backed by Assad's two main allies - Russia and Iran - and by Turkey, which has supported many of the FSA groups in northern Syria. Russia mobilized the new talks after helping Assad to defeat the rebels in Aleppo last month.

ISLAMIST AHRAR AL-SHAM CALLS UP FIGHTERS

Fateh al-Sham was al Qaeda's official wing in the Syrian war until it announced it had cut those ties last year. Internationally viewed as a terrorist group, it has been excluded from all diplomatic efforts to end the Syrian conflict, including a recent truce brokered by Russia and Turkey.

Since the new year, Fateh al-Sham has been targeted by a spate of U.S. air strikes. That included an attack by a B-52 bomber which the Pentagon said killed more than 100 al Qaeda militants.

Fateh al-Sham said in a statement published on Tuesday it had been forced to act preemptively to "thwart conspiracies" being hatched against it. It said "conferences and negotiations" were "trying to divert the course of the revolution toward reconciliation with the criminal regime (of Assad)".

It also accused rebel factions that attended the Astana talks of agreeing to "isolate" and fight it, and said its foes were giving away its positions to the U.S.-led coalition.

Fateh al-Sham is one of the most powerful groups in the remaining territory held by the rebels in northwestern Syria, including Idlib province. While it has often fought in close proximity to FSA rebels against Assad, it also has a record of crushing foreign-backed FSA groups.

Ahrar al-Sham, a major Islamist faction that also fights in the Idlib area, issued a general call-up of fighters to "stop the fighting in any form". Coming down on the side of the FSA groups, it accused Fateh al-Sham of rejecting mediation efforts that the FSA groups had accepted.

Ahrar al-Sham, a conservative Islamist group, is widely believed to be backed by Turkey. In a voice message posted on YouTube on Wednesday, Ahrar al-Sham leader Abu Ammar al-Omar said:

"If the fighting continues and if one party continues to do an injustice to another, then we will not allow this to pass, regardless of the cost, even if we become victims of this."

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Iraqi forces, supported by US and coalition troops, now control all of the city east of the Tigris River, including eastern access to all five bridges across the river

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Battle for Mosul: The story so far
Forces battling to seize back control of Mosul in northern Iraq from so-called Islamic State (IS) have reclaimed the eastern half of the city, 100 days after the offensive began.
...

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The Campaign of Mosul: January 19-23, 2017

The Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) stormed the last neighborhood in eastern Mosul on January 23, nearing the end of a nearly three month long battle to clear the eastern half of the city. The ISF is preparing to enter the smaller, but denser and heavily populated, western half within the coming days.

The Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) continued its momentum in northern Mosul from January 19 to 23, as the Iraqi Army (IA)

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into the last ISIS-held

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in east Mosul, Rashidiyah, on January 23. The complete recapture of the city east of the Tigris River is expected within a day. Units from the 9th IA Armored Division and 1st IA Division, previously operating in now-recaptured southeastern Mosul, deployed to and

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Tel Kayyaf District on January 19, then extended the ISF’s northern control to

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the main Dohuk-Mosul road. Units from the 16th Iraqi Army Division had isolated but bypassed Tel Kayyaf in late October 2016 in order to keep apace with other axes already nearing the city limits. Meanwhile, the Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) expanded control along the Tigris River in central Mosul, gaining control of all

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on the eastern side on January 19. The recent gain in momentum follows increased Coalition and ISF efforts to reinforce and synchronize ground efforts across the city and block ISIS’s cross-city mobility.

Both the ISF and ISIS are preparing for operations in western Mosul. Sources reported on January 22 that

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had begun to

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five

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, provided by the Coalition to replace the destroyed bridges, in order to cross the Tigris River into western Mosul. ISIS, meanwhile,

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the landmark

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, situated on the river bank near the northernmost Third Bridge, in order to deny the ISF a strategic base. ISIS will likely use the density of western Mosul to attrite the ISF in an urban fight and limit the ISF’s ability to call in air support or heavy artillery.

The ISF will also need to prepare to operate around an estimated

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remaining in western Mosul. Evacuating residents from western Mosul will be challenging, whether the ISF directs Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to cross first into eastern Mosul towards the camps east of the city, against the grain of current advances, or towards camps west of the Tigris River. Evacuating residents will place an added burden on the ISF to police the IDPs flows. The ISF could elect, then, to operate while residents remain in place, as they largely did in eastern Mosul though it slowed its advances, and import humanitarian aid rather than take responsibility for IDPs flows. Any option will complicate urban operations.

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Jura said:

now I read Pentagon denies Russia's claims it joined U.S.-led coalition in anti-ISIS airstrikes


source is MillitaryTimes

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and I checked it said what Russians said (the Russian version is making Breaking News at gazeta.ru right now:

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)

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The Russian Defense Ministry announced that its warplanes have flown its first combat mission in Syria with American-led aircraft,

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. The Pentagon, however, has

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such a mission took place. U.S. Air Force Col. John Dorrian, a coalition spokesman, says the Russian announcement is “propaganda.” Needless to say, the situation is developing, and highly unusual.

The idea of the Russians and Americans working together on a joint mission in Syria seems odd for several reasons. Given that Russia and the United States

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since Moscow launched its first airstrikes there in September of 2015, it is difficult to see how Moscow and Washington could work together on shared targets.

During his first official White House press briefing today, spokesman Sean Spicer deferred questions to the Defense Department.

Even when former President Barack Obama wanted to work with the Russians on Syria, the Pentagon pushed back,

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. Pentagon officials believed that Moscow would not honor any agreements to coordinate on targets in Syria and that the Kremlin would use any intelligence it shared to bolster Syrian President Bashar al Assad’s regime.

Moreover, the Pentagon alleges that Russian planes have

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, not ISIS. Russia has also

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by the Pentagon that its aircraft are engaging in dangerous air maneuvers over shared Syrian skies that put American pilots at risk. Former Secretary of State John Kerry went as far as

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against Russia over allegations that it was bombing civilian targets.

None of this seems like a smooth segue into a joint air mission.

We can argue over if we think the Russians or the Americans are lying about the alleged joint mission, but, given how far apart the two nations are over how to best resolve the conflict, any aerial coalition would be strange at this point.

More on this as we get it.

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