Iraq: US general says Mosul Op will last another '2 months'

The most senior military commander in the US-led international coalition to defeat Daesh has said that he believes the operation to recapture Mosul from the extremist organisation will last a further two months.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) chief General Joseph Votel said that he expected fierce battles in Mosul up until the moment US-backed Iraqi forces and allied Shia and Kurdish militias managed to prise it away from Daesh’s control.

Votel also said that the Mosul operation would take a further two months, Al Jazeera reported. This would mean that Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi would have failed in his promise to reclaim Mosul by the end of this year, and is instead looking at a timetable that will see Iraqi forces seize the war-ravaged city by February 2017.

Votel’s comments come in light of the coalition’s second-in-command’s press statement yesterday, who declined to give a timeline for the recapture of Iraq’s second city from Daesh.

Speaking via teleconference from Baghdad, British Major-General Rupert Jones said: “Well, look…timelines are not particularly helpful. The key is that we defeat Daesh in both Iraq and Syria, and in a considered, but timely, manner.”

“Exactly how long that takes will depend on…events on the ground,” the British commander added.

Brigadier Haidar Fadil, a senior commander in the Iraqi Counter Terrorism Service (CTS), claimed that his forces now controlled 19 districts of Mosul in what amounts to approximately 30 per cent of the entire city.

Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) also claimed to be closing in on the eastern bank of the Tigris River that bisects Mosul into western and eastern halves, with forces allegedly positioned a mere four kilometres away.

However, CTS units, also known as the Golden Division that was once branded as the “Dirty Brigade” due to allegations of war crimes, have been suffering heavy casualties in numerous Mosul districts due to Daesh ambushes using snipers, tunnels and car bombs that have been described as the Daesh version of airstrikes.

About 100,000 Iraqi forces, Shia militias and Kurdish Peshmerga launched an assault to recapture Mosul on 17 October, in what has been described as the largest military operation since US-led Western forces invaded Iraq and toppled the last stable government the country has had in 2003.