Thursday, May 12, 2016

The Assault To Retake Mosul From The Islamic State Has Been Delayed Again

The wreckage of a car belonging to Islamic State militants lies along a road after it was targeted by a U.S. air strike at the entrance to the Mosul Dam, northern Iraq August 21, 2014. REUTERS/YOUSSEF BOUDLAL

Nancy Youssef, Daily Beast: Taking ISIS Stronghold Is Delayed Again

U.S. and Iraqi officials have been promising to topple the Islamic State’s headquarters in Mosul for more than a year, but now the deadline is pushed back again.

The war to reclaim Iraq’s second-largest city from the self-proclaimed Islamic State has been pushed back yet again, three Pentagon officials told The Daily Beast.

Where officials once hoped to launch the campaign to reclaim the city of Mosul by the end of year, officials believe a year from now is “optimistic,” as one defense official explained.

It’s the latest adjustment to the keystone battle against ISIS, one that has been plagued by U.S. miscalculations about the abilities of the Iraqi security forces. And the pushed backed timeline reinforces a growing belief that for all the U.S. training of Iraqi forces, local ground forces cannot reclaim the city on their own.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: The assault to retake Mosul will happen under a new U.S. President ... and the earliest  that will happen is in 2017.

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