Mosul, Iraq – On Monday the Prime Minister of Iraq Haider al-Abadi announced on television a coalition to retake Mosul, the second largest and the second most important city of Iraq. The coalition started the same day at 6 am Baghdad time and by the end of the first day of the battle around nine villages, 75 square miles approximately, were recaptured.
ISIS occupied the city since 10 June 2014, and since the invasion of Mosul, the Iraqi government has been planning the recovery of the city. This is the second most important battle in Iraq since the occupation of the United States in 2003. In 2 days of fighting, ISIS have performed 12 car bombs attack in strategical places of the city and near the positions of the coalitions. There are 5.000 militants of ISIS remaining in Mosul.
Timeline of the events
Haider al-Abadi announced in the early morning on Monday the initiation of the coalition against ISIS to recover Mosul.
At 6 am Baghdad time, the coalition properly began with 30,000 forces distributing strategic places of Mosul. The Iraqi security forces for the South, the Peshmerga forces from the East, and the U.S forces would attack with air forces and ground contingents supporting both Iraqi security forces and Peshmerga forces.
At 10 am the coalition was ahead of schedule when Peshmerga forces recaptured nine villages and 75 square miles of the city.
ISIS militants attacked with improvised explosive devices and car bombs near the position of the coalitions. Around 10 ISIS militant have died.
The Prime Minister of Turkey joined the battle against the Islamic State to recover Mosul and announced air strikes to support Iraqi, Peshmerga and U.S forces.
There are still 5000 militants of ISIS in the urban area of Mosul. Also, civilians have stated that some militants are under covered as civilians to fight the coalition.
Around 800,000 of civilians could flee the city to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) camps but these does not have the capacity to accept all the displaced.
Coalition against ISIS
Nearly 100.000 forces are fighting ISIS, formed by Iraqi security forces, Peshmerga fighters, paramilitaries, U.S forces and Turkish forces.
Iraq and especially Mosul are economically important for Turkey since the city is oil rich that is why the Prime Minister of Turkey Nabili Yildirim, stated that the country sent air forces to attack ISIS in order to retake Mosul’s territory.
Similarly, the U.S forces are not only fighting for the recovery of Mosul but also sent weapons to counter ISIS and trained the Iraqi security forces. In the past, both U.S and Turkey have declared the fight against ISIS and the countries have been involved in battles to retake cities occupied by the self-proclaimed caliphate.
The Peshmerga forces are military of Iraqi Kurdistan, an autonomous region; these forces have taken nine villages and 75 square miles of the east of Mosul from ISIS only 4 hours after the coalition started.
The whole coalition against ISIS agreed that the Iraqi security forces are in charge to enter the city first and the rest of the forces would enter after the approval of the Iraqi security forces.
Why this is the most important fight against ISIS
Mosul is located in the southern Iraq; it is the industrial city of the country and also rich in oil. Mosul is an important city not only in the internal economy of Iraq, but it is also the channel and the pass where the resources are exported to Turkey and Syria.
The occupation of Mosul in 2014 led serious economically consequences for the country and economic allies of Iraq since it is the first industrial city in the country and the oil is the most exported resource of Iraq.
Mosul it is also the biggest and most important ISIS has occupied so far. Its natural resources and the industrialization of the country served to supply ISIS the last two years. In fact, after the city was captured ISIS seized around 250 million USD from a bank and beside the finance of sponsors, the Islamic State is also maintained by the gaining of the city.
Horror in Mosul
The population of Mosul is around 2 million and a half people, however, since the Battle for Mosul started nearly a million of Iraqi civilian are likely to flee from the city to look for help and a safety place.
The Iraqi government in order to protect civilians from Mosul and all over Iraq dropped on Monday about 7 million leaflets to alert and inform about the coalition against ISIS, steps of how to flee safely from Mosul.
The United Nations set down this week five camps in charge of the UNHCR to help and shelter up 60,000 displaced from Mosul. Nevertheless, with almost a million of civilian that could flee the city, the organization does not have the capacity to keep all the displaced, not in short-term at least.
Source: CNN