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May 29th, 2017 
Awake Goy 
ISIS makes final stand in 9 square kilometers of Mosul. 130,000 civilians caught in the crossfire.
nsnbc : Iraqi military, police and counterterrorism units are confident that the final curtain for ISIS in Mosul will be falling soon. The presence of the “Caliphate” in Mosul has been reduced to a 9 square kilometer are. However, the fighters of the self-proclaimed Islamic State have prepared their positions well and benefit from the fact that tens of thousands of non-combatant civilians are caught in the crossfire.
Old Mosul, minaret of the Nouri mosque where al-Baghdadi proclaimed his “Caliphate” only 900 meters from the front line.
The questions are not “if”, but “when and how” the final curtain will fall for ISIS in Mosul. The insurgents are not only well-prepared by offer frantic resistance, adding to the chaos and the fog of war. Currently nobody, no political party or military strategist can accurately predict when ISIS will fall. What most can predict with tragic accuracy is that the final battles will be murderous mayhem.
The only major place that remains held by ISIS is the Old Mosul district. ISIS, unable to survive in Mosul’s more open neighborhoods, has decided to make its final stand in complex areas where air superiority, rockets, as well as large to medium caliber artillery play minor roles only.
About 500 – 1,000 ISIS fighters are holding out. The neighborhoods of Zanjali and Saha are complementary areas of the Old Mosul town which has seven gates: three from the north and four from the south. The gates considered to be districts are Bab al Tub, Bab Sinjar, Bab Latish, Bab al Biz, Bab al Shams, Bab al Saray and Bab al Jadid. Besides the complexity of these areas, ISIS has one other joker up its sleeve, the 130,000 civilians who are currently under siege.
The “Caliph” has, according to the majority of intelligence sources long escaped from Mosul and is also struggling against internal revolts within the ranks of ISIS. It’s noteworthy that ISIS initially attracted a large number of disillusioned, former and serving Iraqi military men
The most important of the areas of Old Mosul for current and coming operations are Sarzkhana, Faruq, Shifa, Bab Sinjar and Zanjali. Iraq’s Federal Police, Rapid Response Forces, Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Forces and Division 9 in the Iraqi Army are engaged with the war on the right bank of Mosul.
Meanwhile, the at least in part Iranian-backed Hashd al Shaabi is fighting outside Mosul. It’s been over 40 days since the Iraqi Federal Police Forces have reached the vicinity of the Nouri mosque in which the ISIS leader Abu Bakir al-Baghdadi declared his so-called caliphate.
They are now merely 900 meters away from the mosque, stationed there but also bogged down by frantic resistance. It was the opening of the northern front by the counter-terrorism forces and Division 9 that made ISIS turn to Old Mosul to fight its final war there.
On their second day of “their final push”, Iraqi troops faced a combination of sniper fire, suicide bombers, small arms fire and the challenge to reduce casualties among the about 130,000 civilians as low as possible. In the last two days, by Sunday afternoon, the U.S.-trained Iraqi Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) had reportedly killed at least 40 militants, many of whom the Iraqi commanders say are foreign fighters. However, an estimated 500 – 1,000 remain and no reliable casualty numbers for casualties among CTS troops are currently available.
Mosul (archives May 2017)
Over the course of the last two days until Sunday evening ISIS reportedly used 16 car bombs. ISIS has developed a relatively high degree of sophistication, including remote-controlled car bombs. However, car bombs, remote-controlled or driven by suicide bombers, are expected to decrease in numbers as fighting begins to focus on the narrow streets and passageways of Old Mosul. Improvised Explosive Devices left behind, explosives left in tunnels, snipers and the dirty work of face to face, house to house and floor to floor combat will soon pose the greatest risk for Iraqi troops as well as for civilians.
Maan Zayid Ibrahim, a CTS commander, told reporters “With the control of the [Saha] district. We would be able to control the northern part of the Old Mosul. … This means full control over the three districts of Saha, Zanjali and Shifa. That is to say a 360 degree siege around the Old Mosul.” The campaign against ISIS in Mosul has now lasted for about eight months. Maan Zayid Ibrahim noted that “the enemy has lost many of its defense capabilities” these past months but warned against overly optimistic assessments. Nobody, not the CTS, members of the U.S.-led coalition, nor the Iraqi federal government want to see a repetition of the PR quagmire they faced after members of the U.S.-led coalition launched an air strike on March 17, that resulted in more than 100 fatalities among non-combatant civilians.
CH/L – nsnbc 29.05.2017
Source Article from https://nsnbc.me/2017/05/29/murderous-mayhem-in-mosul-isis/
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