Baghdad // The Iraqi army and allied militias on Thursday launched what is expected to be a long and difficult offensive to retake the second city of Mosul, ISIL’s main hub in Iraq.
The army and the Popular Mobilisation paramilitary force “have begun the first phase of conquest operations” in the northern Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital, Iraq’s joint operations command said.
The assault was launched from the Makhmour area, to which thousands of Iraqi forces have deployed in recent weeks, setting up base alongside Kurdish peshmerga and US forces, about 60 kilometres south of Mosul.
Backed by air power from the US-led coalition of western and Arab states, and by the peshmerga, Iraqi troops advanced westwards at dawn.
The joint operations command said four villages had been taken between Makhmour and the town of Qayyarah on the Tigris river, an ISIL hub connecting Mosul with their stronghold of Hawija farther east.
Iraqi prime minister Haider Al Abadi said the move had been “swift and decisive”.
“Daesh is in retreat,” he tweeted.
Peshmerga commander Najat Ali said Iraqi forces took a couple of villages without any resistance but ISIL put up a fight in two others, and set oil ablaze to produce smoke as a shield against coalition airstrikes.
A military statement cited by Iraqi state TV said Thursday’s advance was the first phase in an operation dubbed Fatah, or “Conquest”, that aimed to liberate Nineveh province. It urged civilians to stay away from buildings used by the extremists, warning that they would be targeted in days to come.
The army did not say how long this phase of the operation was expected to take.
The joint operations command is coordinating the battle by Iraqi security forces to retake the large parts of the country seized by ISIL during a lightning offensive in 2014. It includes representatives from the US-led coalition that has provided air support, training and military advisers for the Iraqi army in its fightback.
Experts have warned that any battle to retake Mosul will be difficult, given the significant number of militants and civilians in the city and the time ISIL has had to prepare defences.
Lt Gen Sean MacFarland, the commander of the US-led operation against ISIL, has said that Iraqi generals do not think they will be able to recapture Mosul until the end of this year or early next year at the earliest.
As they have done in battles to retake the cities of Ramadi and Tikrit, Iraqi forces are expected to work slowly and deliberately to cut off supply lines to Mosul before launching an assault on the city.
* Agence France-Presse and Reuters