According to the Reuters news agency, Tehran is the main culprit of a failure of the first stage of the operation on taking of Mosul city and complication of the battle there.
Iraqi Special Forces in Mosul, Nov. 16, 2016 (Photo: AP / Felipe Dana)
After a failure of an initial plan of the assault on the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group in Mosul, the US-led coalition has decided to find a culprit of its mishap in Iraq and accused Iran. So, an article, entitled ‘How Iran closed the Mosul ‘horseshoe’ and changed Iraq war’, was published by the Reuters news agency on Wednesday. According to authors of the piece, who cited some unnamed sources of unknown origin, Tehran “successfully pressed Iraq to change its battle plan and seal off the city.” As a result, such an intervention has shaped the “tortuous course of the conflict” and significantly complicated the Mosul battle.
According to the news agency, the initial plan was to close Mosul “in a horseshoe formation” – to block three fronts and leave the fourth, located to the west of the city and leading to neighboring Syria, open. In this case, militants and civilians could have used the open front in order to leave the city, and the Mosul battle would have been “quicker and simpler.”
“But Tehran, anxious that retreating fighters would sweep back into Syria just as Iran’s ally President Bashar al-Assad was gaining the upper hand in his country’s five-year civil war, wanted Islamic State crushed and eliminated in Mosul,” the piece reads.
As unknown sources of the news agency said, “Iran lobbied for Iranian-backed Popular Mobilization fighters to be sent to the western front to seal off the link between Mosul and Raqqa, the two main cities of Islamic State’s self-declared cross-border caliphate.”
According to the article, now IS terrorists just do not have any choice and are forced to “to fight to the death.” The authors of the piece believe that this fact greatly complicates the process of liberation of Mosul from terrorists. At the same time, they also note that now “1 million remaining Mosul citizens have no escape from the front lines,” and this also complicates and slows the operation of the Iraqi Army in the city, as they cannot use heavy weapons and the coalition’s air power cannot carry out airstrikes in populated areas.
But, wait… Has anyone heard that presence of civilians or allied forces has ever prevented the US-led coalition to carry out airstrikes in these areas? We know a number of examples, when airstrikes of the coalition’s air power targeted populated areas and positions of Iraqi troops, killing both civilians and the country’s soldiers. On Monday, from 90 to 200 Iraqi servicemen were killed, while more than 100 others were wounded in a ‘mistaken’ airstrike of the US Air Force. According to the Al-Arabiya TV-channel, on Wednesday, at least 70 Iraqi civilians were killed and more than 100 others were wounded in a series of airstrikes on the city of al-Qaim, located 550 kilometers from Baghdad. And these incidents are only the latest ones.
The coalition also could have opened humanitarian corridors in order to allow civilian population to leave the besieged city, as it was done in the Syrian city of Aleppo. However, apparently, the US decided that this move is not so important, as local residents have never been considered by the US as a hindrance for its airstrikes.
The situation looks like the US-led coalition was just going to drive IS terrorists from Mosul to neighboring Syria, and the move, taken by Tehran, prevented such a development. The words of a Kurdish official, involved in planning the Mosul battle, quoted by Reuters once again confirm this assumption: “In the west, the initial idea was to have a corridor … but the Hashid (Popular Mobilisation) insisted on closing this loophole to prevent them going to Syria.”
Sigh.
If this was a well planned operation, the civilians would be able to run in any direction into the waiting arms of liberators and be guided to holding areas where they would be cared for until the battle was resolved. These people think we are idiots. Perhaps most of their audience is.
Most people have an appalling sense of ignorance when it comes to how wars are waged. You can tell them anything. Just look at Hollywood tactics for the average war movie.
Typical Yankistani a$$holes…. They want to win at a minimum cost to themselves, but pass on the true costs to others (ie Syria).
Unshamed mainstream media.
If the USArmy was able to destroy Saddam, even twice, taking of Mosul is sure only a breakfast program :)
Cause most likely US and coalition incompetence. Too busy bombing hospitals, schools and civilians, all conveniently a “mistake”. Maybe Iraq, Syria, Iran, Russia should bomb the US and coalition and claim it was a “mistake”.
The six major media conglomerates get their fake ‘news’ from two primary news agencies today: AP and Thomson-Reuters. Reuters is/was Rothschild-owned. Indirectly of course – the Rothschilds never own anything directly. The Rothschilds and the Thomson family of Canada are relentless Likudist shills and ALWAYS report anything related to Iran in a negative light (and anything related to Israel in a positive light).
Reuters reporters were banned from Iran years ago for publishing news video of a Iranian woman’s self-defense class as a ‘terrorist training facility’. Reuters is the eternal Israeli harpy shrieking for the west to destroy Iran. If they can’t twist actual news to fit that purpose, then they make it up. They are currently pissed off at the Shia PMUs in Iraq for blocking the ISIS escape route to Syria. The plan was for the head-choppers to set up a permanent enclave in eastern Iraq (Anbar) and western Syria (roughly east of the Euphrates from Raqqa to Deir EzZor to al Bukamal). This was to be an eternal terrorist base to keep Iraq and Syria weak and destabilized forever, and provide a potential route for Qatar gas pipelines north to Turkey and the Kurds stolen Syrian/Iraqi oil south to Israel.
AP is only marginally less a shill for Israel and their relentless anti-Iranian war-mongering. Expect much more demonization of Iran as the AP and Reuters ramp up the rhetoric for the U.S./GCC war with Iran next year. Note that I left Israel out – they don’t fight their own wars. That’s what the U.S. and GCC are for.
Reuters and ap are both owned by the rothschild group. To me this means anything from them shouldn’t be believed unless it can be proven.
so… it is very true that…ISIS is backed by western powers.
thanks Iran for exposing the truth
The military genius who announced timing of the offensive four months in advance certainly also bears some responsibility here…o
They should give that MSM outlet the name it really deserves: Rotters
Yes, because not encircling your enemy while trying to siege a city makes sense.
-______-
Yes, of course the plane failed but not the plan of retaking Mosul but the plan to use ISIS i Syria!
the fuck with reuters. So ISIS must not be encircled and destroyed, it must be pushed where it serves the purpose of regime change in zionist interests. Fuck this people.
The US has once more underestimated Iran. It would be expected that Iran would not allow the plan to flood Syria with Isis thugs to succeed. Now the “coalition” will have to deal with Isis in Mossul, while Bashar al-Assad cleans up the mess in Aleppo and elsewhere in Syria. Three cheers for Iran!…
Great job Iran!☺
Well, at least Reuters admits the plan was to drive IS into Syria, and not destroy them. It’s very handy, and frequently amusing, this ritual magic geas the Freemasons operate under, whereby they are compelled to reveal the truth even while they try to obfuscate and deceive.