Iraq: Mosul Offensive Going Faster than Expected
Local Editor
Iraqi troops launched a fresh push against areas held by Daesh [ISIS/ISIL] terrorists around Mosul as Special Forces join the offensive to retake the Takfiri group's last major stronghold in Iraq.
Government troops advanced on the town of Bartallah, located less than 20 kilometers east of Mosul, on Thursday after capturing a string of villages nearby.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said Iraqi forces were pushing towards Mosul more quickly "than we thought and more quickly than planned."
"The forces are pushing towards the town more quickly than we thought and more quickly than we had programmed in our campaign plan," Abadi told senior officials in Paris via a video conference call.
Iraq's Joint Operations Command said troops established control over the villages of Bajwaniyah, Bajwaniyah al-Thalatha, Daraj, Bakr al-Oula, Bakr al-Thani, al-Mankoubah and al-Raflah and raised the national flag over buildings.
At dawn Thursday, units assisting the Iraqi army closed in on villages near Bashiqa where the presence of Turkish troops sparked a bitter dispute between the two countries.
Field commanders said the "large-scale operation," launched at 6:00 am [0300 GMT] north and northeast of Mosul, was aimed at clearing nearby villages and securing control of strategic areas to further restrict Daesh movements.
Relatively, two drones flown by Daesh above the battlefield were brought down. The French news agency AFP said its reporter identified one of the downed drones as the Raven RQ-11B developed for the US military.
In the process, Iraq's Arabic-language al-Sumaria television said Daesh evacuated scores of the wives of senior commanders of the group from Mosul to militant-held cities in Syria, including Raqqah.
The report said they had been evacuated on the order of Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to avoid capture by security forces or rebellious residents in Mosul.
Speculation about the whereabouts of Baghdadi is also rife, with former Iraqi foreign ministry Hoshiyar Zebari saying he was still in Mosul.
Commander of Federal Police Forces, Lieutenant General Raed Shaker Jawdat, said Iraqi security forces have cleansed 352 square kilometers of Daesh terrorists ever since the Mosul operation began on October 17.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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