By Douglas Burton
The Iraqi military campaign to recapture Mosul “has bogged down,” Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters in Baghdad Friday. The slow pace of the Iraqi Army to recapture territory south of Mosul lost to ISIS two years ago drawn increasing public criticism.
Iranian-backed Shia militias are at least partly to blame. And their presence may, in fact, be strengthening ISIS.
“The Shia militia have Iranian agendas and are killing many people,” according to Col. Tariq Ahmed Jaff, deputy commander of the Peshmerga’s 9th Combat Brigade in Kirkuk.
On Thursday from the governor of the Nineweh Province, Nofal Sultan, who told BasNews, a Kurdish media outlet, that the Iraqi forces are pushing forward slowly compared to the huge size of the forces deployed to the area.
“If it takes so long to recapture a small number of villages, then how long it may possibly take to recapture the entire city of Mosul?” he said in exasperation.
Sultan has a point: the see-saw battles between the Army and ISIS in recent weeks portend a struggle that could go on for a year. He also complained of a shortage of armored vehicles and heavy equipment.
But another problem, which he didn’t mention, is the fact that the Shia officers and soldiers don’t just lack the motivation to put themselves at risk to rescue a city of Sunni citizens — their ethnic rivals — from ISIS. Their presence may be strengthening the terror group.
“Recapturing Mosul is a task the Iraqi Army is not ready to do, it may also be one they don’t want to do,” according to Michael Pregent, a career military intelligence specialist serving as an adjunct scholar at the Hudson Institute.
“An invading force of Shia Iraqi Army with PMUs (Hashd al-Sha’abi) carrying Shia Militia flags and the Iraqi Flag while yelling Shia battle cries could have the effect of pushing Sunnis who do not support ISIS into armed resistance.” says Pregent.
By any standard the array of sectarian and ethnic armies in Iraq inching toward full confrontation in Mosul is complex. The city is held by the international brigades of ISIS recruits from more than a dozen countries. “They have been calling in every available fighter in the region to defend the city against an assault that the Iraqi government promises will start no later than May,” according to Ali Awni, a Kurdish official who serves on the board of the Shekhan District 25 miles north of Mosul.
Most of the ISIS fighters, who number between 4,500 up to 6,000 are a mix of foreign fighters “who don’t what to be there” and conscripted Mosulawis “who are forced to join ISIS but who will fight to keep Mosul from falling under Shia control” says Pregent.
At the Makhmour front 40 miles south of the city of one million people, two brigades of the predominately Shia 15th Iraqi Army division have been lurching forward to recapture abandoned villages held by ISIS fighters since March 24. After the recapture of four villages March 25, ISIS counter-attacked on April 5 killing 20 Iraqi army soldiers and pushing the army out of the village of Al Nasr which had been claimed a week earlier. Awni says the Shia militia abandoned large quantities of guns and ammunition to the ISIS, fighters, which recalled the ignominious retreat of the Iraqi Army from Mosul in June, 2014.
The Iraqi army counts on close air support of Coalition aircraft and includes units of Kurdish Peshmerga and some Sunni Tribal fighters from the area, according to the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War.
Until now, the Baghdad government has kept the Iranian-backed PMU out of the Mosul campaign for fear of antagonizing the Mosul residents, many of whom see Shia as mortal threats. In Kirkuk, 40 miles east of the Iraqi army, however, Peshmerga commanders met on recently with military leaders of the Popular Mobilization Units, which are Hashd al-Shabi Shia militia armed and staffed by Iranian Badr Corps and Quds Force officers, and which are feared by Kurds and Sunni citizens alike. The PMU, said to be more than 30,000 in number, include rogue militia and have a reputation for looting and extrajudicial killings, according to Awni.
To the west of Mosul in the Yezidi heartland of Sinjar Mountains, local officials have moved to stop the Hashd Al-Shabbi militia from using a Yezidi militia several thousand strong as its proxy, according to Bas News, a Kurdish media group. The mayor of the Yezidi city of Sinjar announced Monday that only Peshmerga of the Kurdish Regional government could operate in the area.
“There have been occasional reports of armed Shia infiltration, including Quds, into Kirkuk. That is a highly provocative act on the part of Tehran,” says Ernie Audino, a retired U.S. Army brigadier general and a Senior Military Fellow at the London Center for Policy Research.
“Now that Iran has emerged as the dominant power in the Gulf, Tehran’s support, influence and control of the Abadi Regime and the Shia militias cannot be ignored. In fact, much of the Sunni Arab support for ISIS is motivated by a fear of increasing Shia dominance across the Gulf.”
Douglas Burton is a former foreign service official in Iraq and reports from Washington, D.C.
In the winter of 1981, Reagan should have sent our Air Force to give Iran a strong message after the hostage crisis. I wonder if they were given a military message 35 years ago if Iran would still be so troublesome?
Of course they are making ISIS stronger than ever, and they have 150 billion US Tax Paid Dollars to do so. Obama and John Kerry should hang their heads in shame.
That will never happen. They will spin this every which way.
Randy, who believes the lies told by these liars? The total idiots that voted for them.
their heads shoud be hung for them…
I believe very strongly in what Marilyn has said, but I do not think Obama, Kerry and Hillary and the rest of them bums in Washington have any shame and don’t feel they are to blame.
Nothing in the Middle East makes sense. Iran, which is Shia Muslim, should be opposing Sunni Muslim ISIS. But so far they are very weak in doing so. The US CIA and State Dept. were very involved with the creation of ISIS through stupid policies and blunders. And now we’re supposedly fighting ISIS, but also very weakly. We now have enough of our own oil/natural gas. We can tell the Middle East to kiss our backsides, but we keep inserting US troops haphazardly. Nothing in this Middle East makes any sense!! We need to get the hell out. Worry about more important problems. Let them kill themselves!!
There will Never be Enough Of Our U.S. Troops Put into the Mix..in The Middle East. There will never BE an END to this Madness…not as long as Two Are still Standing And there are Weapons to shoot . The World has gone mad..And Every war Started Simply Grows Bigger. The Answer is not to be found in Any More War. Once Started,,Where is The End to be found ? We Have Responsibility to Find The Answer..Or Else, GET OUT Now. To Continue Will Only Grow More Wars..And Then What ? Let These Middle Easterners continue fighting between themselves just because they always have ? This is why there is never any positive change there for the better. Anything to build on is destroyed before it can even be recognized as assistance for good. God Willing, and with Gods` help, WE Must Find it before it is forever too late.
For some Reason..My comments Simply Disappeared >>> Maybe I Agreed Too Vehemently With.. Arthur H. ///
Thanks for your support. Maybe our Congress/President can support our troops by getting them the hell out of there!!
Only IDIOTS will ignore the possibility that Iran is, where need be, in cahoot with ISIS.
Iran could even channel money to the Israeli far left as far as I know!!!
obama doing what he does best…..GIVING AMERICA AWAY!!!!! COME ON OVER, WE HAVE FREE EVERYTHING IF YOU ARE ILLEGAL!!!!! TRUMP 2016!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I, for one, would LOVE it if someone ‘gave away’ a bullet into the worthless, treasonous POS Obama. Give it to him the way it was ment to be given and I will give you $5,000.
Iran is a troublemaker throughout the region. They are involved in Syria. They are able to keep trouble stirred up in Afghanistan and Iraq thanks to the borders shared with each of those countries.
The Obama administration naively has embraced Iran as a partner for peace. As long as the Shiite government and religious leaders are in power that region of the world will never have peace. This is a perfect example of the viper pit we call the middle east. The individual players hate each other but they hate us even more.
“The Iraqi military campaign to recapture Mosul ‘has bogged down’,” secretary of State John Kerry told reporters. Jerk Kerry, do you and Obama wonder why it bogged down? The two of you released the Iranian funds so that Iran could cause more trouble and instability. Every body knew that this would happen, well I’ll rephrase that–every person who actually thinks and cares about the safety of America and stability in the Middle East knew this would happen. And the two of you did not??? You both should be tried for treason, or exiled for stupidity
Joe Says ?? >>> ( Actually, There is Enough Stupidity to go Around..And Even When we Know Where That “Circle Begins.. How are we Going to STOP it Now , Once The Snakes have been Turned loose rampant all over this universe ( With Obamas` blessings ? ) How to put them all back in their cages ? how will we Recognize them ? It`s time we DID.
I want to state at the outset that this comment has nothing to do with this article in particular. I am interested in sharing some bipartisan thoughts about the topic, We Are The Party, and address it to both Democrats and Republicans alike.
This election cycle has focused my thinking about the process we go through in both parties to select a candidate to represent us in the November elections. During the Democratic primaries Democrats vote for their choice but the “Party” has super delegates who are not beholding to the rank and file Democratic voter. On the Republican side it is apparent that when they don’t like who the rank and file Republicans are voting for “they” the “Party” try to decide who is going to be the nominee over the choice of the majority of their members. In both cases the Democratic and Republican parties forget that in reality you and I “Are the Party” and we should be the ones that ultimately decide who represents us.
To this end I am suggesting a voter “Revolution” where people push back hard on their respective parties and remind those in charge that you and I are the party and we really don’t care for these rules that take the ultimate say away from those of us who are also registered Democrats and Republicans. I would urge those of you who agree to write and call your respective Congressional, State and Local representatives to complain about the “process” in addition to the DNC and RNC depending on your party affiliation.
I think its time that the people involved in the political process understand that they only derive their authority from the People when we give it to them and WE need to recognize that when we acquiesce and let them do as they wish we are abrogating our individual prerogatives to have them represent us as we would like to be represented.
Those of you who feel you agree with my sentiments are free to use this statement in any comments or letters or conversations you have. It is my intention to insert this statement in the comments of every article I read online and to hopefully start a movement that will hold both political parties accountable to their members.
Thanks for reading this whether you agree or not.