US claims it has killed Daesh leaders in Mosul

Airstrikes by the international coalition against Daesh have killed 18 of the militant organisation’s commanders over the past 30 days, 13 of them in Mosul, a US military spokesman announced yesterday at a press briefing.

Colonel John Dorrian, spokesman for the US-led Operation Inherent Resolve, told a Pentagon briefing that many of those targeted were military commanders, propagandists and those facilitating foreign recruits into territory controlled by Daesh.

“By taking these individuals off the battlefield, it creates some really disruptive effects to enemy command and control,” Dorrian said.

The spokesman also added that the airstrikes against targets in Mosul, Daesh’s last major urban stronghold in Iraq, have reportedly also claimed Abu Jannat who was allegedly Daesh’s deputy military commander in Mosul.

According to the Pentagon, Abu Jannat was also responsible for the manufacture of chemical weapons.

“The people who replace these [leaders] have not established their bona fides with [Daesh leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi], his inner circle, and they’re often not as seasoned as those they replace,” Dorrian commented, suggesting that Daesh’s command and control was being deteriorated.

Dissent against Daesh in Mosul

By demonstrating an ability to strike Daesh’s leadership in Mosul and other major cities, the US-led coalition’s intelligence efforts likely benefit from residents of Mosul who are angry at being under the dominion of the extremist organisation.

Apart from signals intelligence and other forms of surveillance, the loss of 18 Daesh leaders in the past month suggests a high level of human intelligence where Iraqi locals in Mosul, an overwhelmingly Sunni Arab city, have shown several signs of discontent at Daesh rule over their city.

Earlier this week, the BBC reported that Daesh operatives were hunting locals who flew the Iraqi national flag in the eastern Mosul district of Muthanna, seen as an open sign of rebellion against Daesh. Anti-Daesh graffiti has also been appearing on walls around the city recently.

Dorrian said there are between 3,000 and 4,500 Daesh fighters left in Mosul and while new fighters are not able to enter the city in large convoys, they still continue to move in small formations.

The United States has 4,565 troops in Iraq as part of a US-led coalition providing extensive air support, training and advice to the Iraqi military, which collapsed in 2014 in the face of Daesh’s territorial gains and lightning advance toward the capital, Baghdad.

Earlier this week, the Pentagon announced that the US would send around 600 new troops to Iraq to assist Iraqi forces in the battle to retake Mosul from Daesh.