Mosul offensive (2016)

The Mosul offensive (2016), also called Operation Conquest or Operation Fatah, refers to an ongoing offensive which started in the Iraqi province of Nineveh, against ISIL's positions in Mosul and the surrounding region. The offensive is a joint effort by the Iraqi government forces with allied militias, Iraqi Kurdistan, limited US ground forces, and US and allied air support. It is part of the military intervention against ISIL, with the aim of pushing ISIL out of the second-largest city of Iraq, Mosul, as well as the rest of the Nineveh Governorate. The operation follows the Mosul offensive in 2015, which successfully recaptured parts of the region northwest Mosul, but stopped short of breaching the city itself, for various reasons. The Fall of Mosul to ISIL occurred between 4 and 10 June 2014.

Background

Main articles: Fall of Mosul, Mosul offensive (2015), and Anbar offensive (2015–present)

Since the city of Mosul fell to ISIL forces on 10 June 2014, the United States and the Iraqi Government were planning to retake the city. Initially, the original plan called for an assault on Mosul in July or August 2015. From late January through early February 2015, the Peshmerga launched an offensive on northwest Mosul with 5,000 soldiers, cutting ISIL supply lines to Tel Afar, and coming within 6 miles of the city center, from Mosul's northwestern outskirts. In May 2015, the Fall of Ramadi to ISIL delayed the planned offensive to retake Mosul to 2016. In late November 2015, the Iraqi Army fully encircled Ramadi and launched another offensive to retake the city, fully recapturing Ramadi and the neighboring districts in February 2016. In late February 2016, 4,000 Iraqi soldiers redeployed to the Makhmour area in the southwestern Erbil Province, in preparation for an upcoming offensive on Mosul.

The offensive

The offensive began on 24 March 2016, near the Makhmur area of the Nineveh Province. Thousands of Iraqi troops were deployed there in recent weeks. They were setting up bases alongside Kurdish and US forces. While advancing westwards towards the oil town of Qayyarah, Iraqi troops were reported to have recaptured several villages from ISIL, among them Al-Nasr, Garmandi, Kudila and Khurburdan. However it was later revealed that ISIL was still occupying Al-Nasr and the government forces were trying to capture it.

Around 4,000 soldiers, from two brigades of the U.S.-trained 15th Division of the Iraqi army, including Sunni tribal fighters (considered by Peshmerga commanders to be crucial to hold the traditionally Sunni areas), met stiff resistance. It was reported that they were attacked by suicide bombers as well as with mortars and machine guns, which stopped the advance for the time being. Warplanes of the U.S. led coalition against ISIL launched multiple airstrikes on at least two locations. 200 U.S. Marines had set up a small outpost called Firebase Bell in the last few weeks. From there they provided artillery and targeting support for Iraqi forces. The presence of U.S. Marines became known, after one of them was recently killed in an ISIL rocket attack. Kurdish Peshmerga forces didn't take active part in the fight yet, they only held the front line at what they considered as the border of their territory. It was announced on 27 March that Abu Furqan al-Misry, an ISIL commander and executioner who was a notorious figure in the region, had been killed.

During the offensive, Iraqi soldiers temporarily fled from the village of Nasr after ISIL started to shell the village, while Kurdish Peshmerga forces held their positions according the Kurdish media groups. There were reports of 25 ISIL fighters killed as the Iraqi army was shelling ISIL headquarters in Qayyarah.

By the first days of April 2016, thousands of Mosul residents began to flee the area, as Iraqi forces inched closer towards the city. ISIL has reportedly started using the chemistry lab of the Mosul University for making bombs.

The Joint Task Force carried out airstrikes against ISIL near Qayyarah on 1 April. The airstrikes destroyed a weapon storage facility, a tactical vehicle and two mortar firing positions. A source in Nineveh Liberation Operations Command in a statement to IraqiNews.com published on 2 April announced that 40 ISIL militants had been killed by Iraqi forces in different regions south of Mosul. The slain militants included 6 suicide bombers and one senior leader.

The ISIL-occupied Turkish Consulate was destroyed by airstrikes from the U.S.-led coalition after Turkey had given its approval for targeting the consulate. Later on the same day, Iraqi Army managed to kill 30 terrorists and detonate a booby-trapped vehicle in the village of al-Nasr located in Makhmur District south of Mosul.

On 5 April, Coalition aircraft bombed a training headquarters belonging to ISIL near the Grand Mosque in the city of Mosul resulting in the killing of 50 fighters belonging to ISIL, as well as destroying their headquarters completely.

On 6 April, Iraqi security forces from the army’s 15th brigade, Peshmerga, and tribal fighters resumed military operations, after receiving information about the presence of a large number of booby-trapped vehicles and suicide bombers belonging to ISIS in al-Nasr village south of Mosul, killing 70 ISIS militants and destroying seven car bombs.

The Iraqi government released a footage on 7 April that showed an airstrike conducted by the coalition forces in Mosul which destroyed a bridge that was being used to ferry supplies by ISIL. In addition, the government claimed that a number of militants had been killed in the airstrikes as well with many other roads and bridges used as supply lines by ISIL being cut-off. On the same day, US-led coalition aircraft carried out an air strike targeted a laboratory of chlorine-filled rockets, chlorine gas and other toxic materials belonging to ISIS in al-Saawiya village in Qayyara District, killing 30 ISIS fighters who were inside the laboratory and destroying the laboratory completely.

On 9 April, at least 30 ISIL militants were killed by Coalition airstrikes in Mosul. Two airstrikes struck an ISIL defensive fence in Al-Haj, south of Mosul, killing over 20 militants, pulverized the base. 10 ISIL militants were also killed when Coalition jets pounded another site in the Al-Mahanna district, to the south of Mosul. British aircraft carried out airstrikes near Mosul and Qayyarah on 12 April, taking out an ISIL rocket launching team near Mosul and a mortar team near Qayyarah. On 16 April, a Coalition airstrike killed Imad Khalid Afar, a senior ISIL commander and adviser, near the Salam Hospital.

On 18 April, the US and Peshmerga forces carried out a raid in Hamam Alil, to the south of Mosul, killing 3 ISIL militants. One of them was Salam Abd Shabib al-Jbouri, the top ISIL commander in Mosul. On the same day, the Peshmerga launched an offensive on Khorsabad, to the northeast of Mosul, capturing the villages of Nawara and Barima, as well as the Khorsabad Intersection, to the north of Khorsabad. By 19 April, Peshmerga forces entered Khorsabad.

On 27 April, the Iraqi Army captured Mahana, a village in the Makhmour area located southeast of Qayyarah. The clashes and the aerial bombardments at Mahana resulted in the deaths of 200 ISIL militants. On the same day Iraqi Army shelled a gathering belonging to ISIL in Khayata village, in the Qayyara district, killing 35 ISIL militants. On 29 April, the Iraqi Army repelled an ISIL counterattack on the villages of Mahana and Khardan, killing 91 ISIL militants. An Australian ISIL recruiter Neil Prakash, also known by his alias Abu Khaled al-Cambodi was killed in a US airstrike in Mosul on the same day.

On 2 May, nine ISIS militants were killed by a shelling conducted by the Iraqi army 15th brigade on ISIS gathering in Shayla village in Makhmur District south of Mosul.

On 3 May, at 7:30am local time, 125 ISIS militants with more than 20 vehicles attacked a Peshmerga position, near the town of Tel Skuf, 28–30 km North of Mosul, where a dozen U.S. troops acting as advisors were visiting. American and Peshmerga forces fought back but the militants broke into the position using 3 truck bombs followed by bulldozers which cleared the wreckage away, the Peshmerga and U.S. forces called for a QRF which responded and joined the battle, helping the advisors and other personnel to withdraw. 11 to 13 U.S. aircraft; F-15s F-16s, A-10s, B-52s and 2 drones were scrambled and they carried out 31 airstrikes; which destroyed 2 more truck bombs and together the coalition forces repelled the attack. The battle continued for another 12 hours, in total; 58 militants were killed, 3 mortars and 20 of their vehicles were destroyed, Peshmerga forces captured at least 3 US-made Humvees that ISIS had itself captured from the Iraqi military in 2014. However, Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Charles Keating IV; a U.S. Navy SEAL who was part of the QRF, was struck by direct ISIS small arms fire at 9:32am, he was medevaced to a medical facility in Erbil where he later died of his wound, making him the third American servicemen to be killed in combat during Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq. 10 Peshmerga fighters were also killed and a further 30 wounded, 2 U.S. medevac helicopters were also damaged by small arms fire. The IS attack is part of their counter offensive on multiple fronts overnight to obtain new ground, in the case of the firefight at Tel Skuf, ISIS covertly assembled their forces and attacked before 6am into Kurdish territory, destroying a Peshmerga checkpoint on the way to Tel Skuf. Iraqi military sources said that special forces had foiled an attack by 5 suicide bombers in the village of Khirbirdan and Peshmerga forces repelled an IS assault on Wardak. Coalition aircraft carried out 7 airstrikes near Mosul hitting six groups of IS fighters as well as 2 vehicles, 3 weapons caches, a mortar system and other targets. U.S. Army Colonel Steve Warren labeled the offensive as one of the most complex battlefield operations launched by ISIS since December 2015.

On 6 May, coalition aviation conducted an aerial strike on a gathering for ISIS elements in the village of al-Ju’wana in the district of Makhmour, resulting in the death of 20 ISIS elements.

On 7 May, coalition aviation carried out an air strike, destroying ISIS fuel station south of Mosul, killing 17 ISIS militants.

On 9 May, Iraqi forces retook the northern village of Kabrouk from ISIL, supported by artillery and airstrikes from the U.S.-led Coalition, killing 40 ISIS fighters during the liberation that took less than two hours while militants put up little resistance in the village. This advance brings Iraqi forces slightly closer to the oil town of Qayyara on the western banks of the Tigris River.

On May 29, Peshmerga forces, consisting of 5,500 fighters, supported by the Coalition airstrikes, retook al-Muftiyah and Jim Kour towns near Mosul. From 28–30 May, Peshmerga forces recaptured 9 villages to the southeast of Mosul, including Mufti, Tulaband, Shuqali and Wardak. Four Peshmerga fighters and 140 ISIL militants were killed in the clashes.

On 31 May, the Iraqi army repelled an ISIL attack on the areas of Kabrouk, Mahana and Kharbrdan west of Makhmur, killing 22 ISIL members. During the attack the militants used two booby-trapped vehicles against army's district headquarters.

Executions

On 30 March, ISIL terrorists electrocuted at least 15 civilians in the central Bab al-Toub neighborhood of Mosul, for allegedly collaborating with the government and passing information to state officials.

On 7 April, ISIL executed 18 civilians after accusing them of spying for the Kurdish Peshmerga forces and Iraqi army. Eight of them were publicly beheaded in central Mosul, while ten others were burned to death inside a cage in front of hundreds of people.

On 12 April, a source in Nineveh Province stated that ISIL carried an the execution in front of a student’s house, in the village of al-Haj Ali in Makhmur District, and in the presence of all the people in the village, for collaborating with the security forces.

On 2 May, ISIS executed 17 citizens in Mosul for refusing to join the battles against the Iraqi security forces.

On the evening of 8 May, ISIS members executed eight civilians by firing squad in al-Ghazlani camp in central Mosul on charges of collaborating with the security forces, ISIS members filmed the execution of the civilians after being sentenced to death by the so-called Sharia Court in Nineveh Province and threw the bodies in a hole in western part of the city.

On 11 May, ISIS buried alive 45 of their own fighters in Qayyarah for fleeing a battle near Bashir.

On 19 May, in the city of Mosul, ISIS executed 25 suspected spies by lowering them into a tub of nitric acid. According to witnesses, the victims were tied together with rope before being lowered into a basin containing the corrosive acid.

Casualties

On 12 April, Nineveh Operations Command announced that hospitals in Nineveh Province received more than 500 bodies of ISIL fighters, during the military operations south of the province, especially in Qayyarah.

See also

• Fall of Mosul
• Mosul offensive (2015)
• Nineveh Plains offensive
• Battle of Ramadi (2015–16)
• November 2015 Sinjar offensive
• Siege of Fallujah (2016)
• Al-Shaddadi offensive (2016)