ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — As the next phase of the offensive to liberate west Mosul gets underway, there have been reports of ISIS militants harming civilians, and the US-led international coalition to defeat the group believes this will end shortly.
"The city is completely surrounded,” US Col. John Dorrian told Rudaw TV on Thursday. “Daesh has no ability to bring in more fighters to support their operations, and they are awaiting their fate. But in the meantime, they are posing dangers to the people that are around them and this something that will end in the coming weeks.”
Dorrian foresees a hard fight ahead for Iraqi forces. It is estimated that west Mosul has 750,000 residents; additionally, military experts have said the right bank will have to be cleared building by building and street by street.
"What we expect is this is going to be a very, very difficult fight and very dangerous. What we've seen from the enemy is they don't have any problem harming civilians ... in many cases they've purposefully targeted civilians — that's happening right now,” Dorrian said.
"[To counter that] we are targeting their leaders, their fighters, and their mortars and artillery pieces. We are destroying a lot of these, but it's still a very dangerous situation.”
Coalition airstrikes destroyed an ISIS headquarters in western Mosul, according to reports made to Al-Sumaria TV on Thursday.
"Mosul is going to be liberated,” Dorrian said. “The Iraqi security forces are going to be able to liberate the city. Daesh is going to be crushed in west Mosul. It is going to be finished. Then the Iraqi security forces will liberate the other areas of Iraq.”
Iraqi security forces have been regrouping since recapturing east Mosul in January, as coalition partners cut of ISIS supply routes around Iraq’s second-largest city.
More than week ago the Iraqi Army Chief of Staff Osman al-Ghani said, “The Iraqi army, federal police and counter-terrorism forces are set to conduct the operation.”
The offensive to retake western Mosul will start “in the next few days,” US Army Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, the top US commander in Iraq, said on Feb. 8.
“Within the next six months, I think we’ll see both conclude,” said Townsend, referring to the ongoing Mosul and Raqqa offensives.
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