Nineveh operations chief expects Talaafar battle to start in two weeks and easy victory
Nineveh operations chief expects Talaafar battle to start in two weeks and easy victory
2017-08-01
Nineveh operations chief Maj. Gen. Najm al-Jubouri expected the security forces to win an easy victory in the next battle to restore Tal Afar district, 40 km west of Mosul, and free him from terrorist gangs.
Tal Afar is the second stronghold of Daish in Ninewa province. It is estimated that there are 2,000 terrorists suffering from stress and low morale after the liberation of the entire city of Mosul on July 10.
“The battle of Tal Afar is not going to be a big and complex battle,” Major General Jabbouri told Reuters in an interview. “The enemy is heavily exhausted. It has been besieged for a long time. It receives strikes daily by night and by day, whether by coalition forces or by the Iraqi air force.”
“The battle will be simple compared to the heavy fighting to restore Mosul, which lasted nine months and cost the Iraqi forces a lot.”
“I know through intelligence reports that their morale is in the bottom and they are also trying as hard as possible to escape from Tal Afar by all means,” said Jubouri, who was mayor of Tal Afar more than a decade ago.
The city, whose population before falling into the hands of 200,000 people, saw waves of sectarian violence after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and produced some of the country’s top leaders.
Turkey, which says it has ties to the Tal Afar population, mostly Turkmen, has refused to participate in the popular rally, but Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has confirmed the participation of the popular and tribal crowd in the battle.
Jabouri estimated there were between 1,500 and 2,000 terrorists in Tal Afar. This figure may include some of their family members who support them. “We are in the aerial surveillance, and with some information, they are preventing civilians from photographing their areas, but I imagine that there are no more than 1,500 to 2,000 fighters,” he said.
“This is a large number, but the terrain is in the interest of the Iraqi forces. It resembles the Saray area of Tel Afar, the old city of Mosul, where Iraqi forces have been forced to walk on narrow streets, and the rest of Tal Afar can be moved with tanks and armor,” he said.
Jubouri said Iraqi forces were expected to face bombings, snipers and mines. He added that although terrorists were trapped, there were no signs of diminishing stockpiles of ammunition.
He added that many Turkmans who are members of the district of Tal Afar were able to escape among the displaced civilians and fled to Turkey where they can merge among the population without notice.
Jabouri believes many of the remaining terrorists are from Turkey, the former Soviet republics and Southeast Asia and are trapped after Iraqi forces cut off all roads between Mosul and Tal Afar this year.
Kurdish forces besieged the city from the north while the popular crowd was besieged from the south, leading to shortages of food and water.
“All that remains is to receive orders from Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to carry out the attack, perhaps within days, a week or two,” Jubouri said.
The next battle to reclaim Tal Afar carries echoes of the past. When the United States reduced its troop presence in northern Iraq after the invasion, terrorists seized the opportunity and captured most of Tal Afar in 2005.
Jabouri, who was then mayor of Tal Afar, hid a 16th-century Ottoman castle that dominated the city from a hilltop in the city center as Iraqi forces and US troops led by Colonel HR McMaster defeated the fighters. Stability in the city was achieved and McMaster’s approach was seen as a blueprint for a successful strategy to tackle the fighters. But in the years that followed, Tal Afar plunged into sectarian violence again and the terrorists gained a foothold again.
Jubouri said he met with McMaster, who is currently US national security adviser about a month ago, and they discussed Tal Afar, adding that the situation was different compared to the previous battle in the future battle.
He said he was advocating a bigger enemy than al-Qaeda, but Iraqi forces had gained experience in the three years in which he fought.
It seems that the American role is less clear this time, but the historical castle no longer exists because it is called a blanket.
burathanews.com
