Saturday, March 26, 2016

Iraqi Soldiers Flee In Their First Mosul Military Operation

Iraqi soldiers gather during a military operation on the outskirts of Makhmour, south of Mosul, Iraq, March 25, 2016. Azad Lashkari/Reuters

Wladimir Van Wilgenburg, Daily Beast: Iraqi Soldiers Flee Again in Iraq Army’s First Mosul Operation

After a U.S. Marine was killed defending a position abandoned by Iraqi troops, they were supposed to have toughened up. … Nope.

TEL REEM, Iraq – At first, Iraqi soldiers involved in an operation to capture villages close to Mosul on Friday were in good spirits. “Allah Akbar,” Arabic for “God is Great,” they shouted after they hit an alleged Islamic State (ISIS) suicide bomber with US-provided mortars. But just one hour later many of them fled, fearing ISIS would strike back.

Early in the day, there were already signs of trouble. A sergeant named Hussein from the artillery battalion told The Daily Beast, “There has been some delays in what we expected, but it’s mostly because of their heavy use of sniper fire and of IEDS. We have not been really advancing today, but that is not part of our plan as of yet, but in coming hours, we are planning to move forward.”

The first challenge was to capture the strategic little village of Nasr that would open the road for the Iraqi military to take the rest of the area. The ultimate short-term aim is to cross the Tigris River and take Qayarrah. This would open the road to the city of Mosul for future operations.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: If this report is accurate .... Mosul is not going to be retaken this year.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

The world most sorry ass coward solder lraqi.American shouldn't waste our time on them punk m/f.

fazman said...

Makes you realize how brave and comparatively skilled saddams republican guard was.

Unknown said...

It was said that Italians in WW2 were worthless soldiers.

This is not true.

They performed well enough with proper leadership.

Fish rots from the head.

Jay Farquharson said...

US Centcom said Mosul was not going to be taken this year several days ago, when the Operation was started.

The Iraqi's have only 15,000 troops, mostly green troops, and need 21,000 more for the Operation. "The Plan" was that as the "surround and hold" phase of the Operation went forward, "green" troops would get combat hardened and newly graduated recruits would be "fed" in to build the needed numbers.

fazman said...

Only 15000
With the equipment recon and airsupport available 5000 would be enough for a half competant force.

Jay Farquharson said...

For every "shooter" on the line, you need 35 in support, supply and logistics.

Stephen Davenport said...

Depends on what they mean by the word "flee", reporters tend to use bogus words to change the meaning of an event, did they flee by throwing down their arms and running or did, they "flee" by withdrawing to a defensible position and evaluate. The word "flee" is a bad choice IMO, its a deceptive attempt to get viewers to read the story, they probably did not run, but withdrew orderly to another position.

Jay Farquharson said...

Down thread, I pointed out that the Marine Firebase story keeps changing,

As has this one.

In the previous Gitmo story a couple of days ago, I provided a link to a rigourous study on Pentagon claims about released Gitmo detainees, that "proves" beyond a shadow of a doubt, that it's all Propaganda.

They are just trying to sell "us" a product, and that's "more boots on the ground".

Anonymous said...

Very low quality and guts unfortunately.

fazman said...

Give the kurds a tenth of the support and they will prove text book logistics incorrect.
These guys are not modern day wermacht and willfold as soon they face a credible western force.
If this was ww2 and there were 15000 german shock troops or u.s rangers with ww2 era armour and artillery support with stukas providing air support it would still be overkill.
Lack of political will by the west incompetant allies and a dithering u.s president is the cause of lack of progress l cant beleive its manpower or equipment shortages against a bunch of illiterate tards.

Unknown said...

What is a Kurdish area?

It seems to me that Saddam changed the boundaries on that.

Jay Farquharson said...

Depends, generally in Iraq, Kurdish "areas" by the Kurds, are considered to be the areas of Iraq, which held a Kurdish Majority, or a significant Kurdish minority, prior to Saddam's "Arabization" Projects, and in which there still reside significant Kurdish populations.

Kirkuik for example, has been used as a "negotating" point between the Kurds and Iraq, based on the large Kurdish Minority.

For a small number of Kurds however, Kurdish "Territory" is everything in their ancient kingdom, from the Caspain, into Afghanisan, down to Damascus, and most of Turkey.

fazman said...

But the kurds are involved in this battle

Jay Farquharson said...

Kurds are on the Northern Flank, in entrenced lines,

http://aranews.net/2016/03/kurdish-peshmerga-forces-hit-isis-positions-mosul/

They are not contributing ground forces for the assault, but are instead, holding position, and only have enough forces to hold position.

Mosul is a dominantly Sunni city.

fazman said...

Fair enough but is that because of a lack of support.
Id hazard a guess that if they were given the resources wasted on the iraqis that theyd be itching for a fight.

Jay Farquharson said...

Nope.

The Iraqi Kurds are as "tribalist" as any one else in Iraq, there are 2 major "Peshmurga" groups and 4 minor "Peshmurga" groups, each allied to a Kurdish Political Party, and none of them play well with each other, or the PPK, or even the YPG, ( who's Socialist Platform has deminished Kurdish Tribalism in Syria),

And they don't "play well" with the Shia or Sunni.

The Kurds are "tapped out", they are too small a minority in Iraq to dominate the battlefield, their Political Leaders rejection of revinue sharing with Iraq, and their reliance on illegal oil smuggling through Turkey has left their political leadership both broke, and compromised.

The Sunni Anbar Tribes provided 98% of the manpower for the ISIS conquests in Iraq, and while many of the Tribes no longer support ISIS, many still do.

The Peshmurga are too "smart" to push into Sunni areas with Sunni Tribes along their supply routes and rear areas. The US has continually "pushed" the Peshmurga to be the "tip of the spear" towards Raqqa, but the Peshmurga keep saying "no".