Iraqi Volunteer Forces Getting Ready for Mosul Battle

The Iraqi militia movement known as the Hashed al-Shaabi has formed a military command center for a campaign to recapture the ISIL terrorists’ main stronghold of Mosul, a spokesman for the movement announced Wednesday.

KarimNuri said the center has been formed and in the coming weeks will lead the military operations, Rudaw reported.

“The Hashed al-Shaabi has established a joint military operation center with the Iraqi Army and Mosul’s volunteer militias, aiming to set plans on how to launch assaults against the ISIL fortifications in Mosul,” said Nuri.

“The center will have a crucial role in organizing military tactics,” he added.

Nuri pointed out that since the fighters took up arms in 2014 to fight the ferocious invasion of the ISIL, the Hashed al-Shaabi has taken part in “hundreds” of battles against the ISIL forces.

According to the spokesman, several top Iraqi Army officials will join the command center as well as the Iraqi Federal Police and the Iraqi Intelligence Service.

After having a crucial role in liberating Tikrit from the ISIL, Hashed al-Shaabi leaders have debated their potential role in the mostly Sunni city of Mosul.

In early April, Mosul’s exiled former governor AtheelNujaifi told Rudaw the presence of Hashed al-Shaabi in Mosul would cause sectarian tensions.

Liberating Anbar province, Huwaijatown top priority of Iraqi popular forces

Liberation of the restive province of al-Anbar and Huwaijatown from terrorists’ control is the priority of the Iraqi popular and army forces, a spokesman said on Wednesday.

“At present, the top priority of the Iraqi popular forces and the military units is the full freedom of al-Anbar province and then Huwaija from the ISIL hands,” Spokesman of the Iraqi popular forces Karim al-Nouri told FNA.

He underlined that purging the terrorists from Huwaija town in Kirkuk province is merely possible through coordination with the Kurds.

Nouri said the complicated and difficult nature of conducting operations in certain parts of Iraq cannot dissuade the Iraqi forces from liberating them.

Reports on Monday said that at least 69 ISIL terrorists were killed and injured in the Western province of al-Anbar by the Iraqi army’s airstrikes and artillery fire.

Iraqi fighter jets killed and wounded at least 43 ISIL terrorists in Qaem district in the restive province of al-Anbar, the interior ministry said in a statement on Sunday, adding that 5 ISIL ringleaders were also killed.

At least 28 terrorists were killed and 15 others were injured during the operations, and the ISIL ringleader in Mosul and Baghdad Ayad Abusaleh is also seen among the dead, the statement added.

Also 26 Takfiri terrorists were killed by the Iraqi forces’ artillery fire against their positions in al-Sokrah district in Anbar province.

Earlier, the Baghdad Operations Command confirmed that the Iraqi Army defended its positions against the ISIL terrorists’ attacks in the nearby areas of Nazim Taqsim in Anbar and killed 31 militants in the battlefield.

The ISIL Takfiri terrorists have threatened all communities, as they continue their atrocities in Iraq and Syria.

Senior Iraqi officials have blamed Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and some Gulf Arab states for the growing terrorism in their country.

The ISIL has links with Saudi intelligence and is believed to be indirectly supported by the Israeli regime.

FNA

R.S