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| Iraq | |
| Mosul offensive advancing faster than expected: Iraq PM | |
| 2016-10-23 | |
The counter-terrorism service (CTS), Iraq's best-trained and most battle-seasoned force, retook full control of Bartalla, a town that lies less than 15 kilometres east of Mosul. Further north, Kurdish peshmerga forces opened a new front with a multiple-pronged assault on the town of Bashiqa. And in the first U.S. combat death in the area since the operation began, an American service member died on Thursday from wounds sustained in a roadside bomb explosion north of Mosul. More than 100 U.S. special operations forces are embedded with Iraqi units in the offensive and hundreds more are playing a support role in staging bases. The offensive to regain control for Mosul is expected to last for months and could lead to a mammoth humanitarian crisis with a mass exodus of civilians from the area. According to reports, ISIS members are also using civilians as human shields in a last-ditch effort to keep control of the city. There are also concerns that they are resorting to suicide tactics, riddling streets with improvised explosive devices and maybe even using chemical weapons. In addition, Kurdish forces have discovered a network of tunnels outfitted with graffiti, electricity, appliances, food and, potentially, booby traps, being used by the ISIS as underground hideouts and also for engaging in guerilla warfare. Although they are losing their grip over the city, the barbaric jihadists are evacuating their Yazidi sex slaves. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |