WASHINGTON DC – Artillery fire by US Marines has been pounding the Islamic State (ISIS) almost daily on the Makhmour front, the Pentagon’s spokesman in Baghdad said, saying it was backing Iraqi forces fighting for territory that will be the launch pad for a much-anticipated offensive to push the militants from their Mosul stronghold. Col. Steve Warren said there was no firm date for the joint offensive on Mosul, which is expected to include Kurdish Peshmerga forces and the US-led Coalition that has been fighting ISIS since after the militants stormed across Iraqi in June 2014, capturing about a third of Iraq, including Mosul. In a news conference with Pentagon reporters via a video link from Baghdad, Warren was asked if an estimate by Iraqi officials that Mosul would be liberated by the end of this year or early next year was correct. “That's certainly something that we would like to see,” he said. “You know, we're trying to stay out of the timeline business, primarily because almost every time we give it, the time line estimate is wrong.” Warren said that the Iraqis were “developing and finalizing their plan.” “The Iraqis have a -- the beginnings of a very trained and increasingly capable force. We know that they are supported by devastating air power,” he was quoted as saying in a Pentagon transcript of the news conference. He added that the Iraqis have allocated “more than $1.6 billion worth of Iraq train and equip funds. So we believe that all of these things combined, along with the Iraqis increasing confidence and competence, -- we believe that their push to Mosul, whenever it is, will be successful.” Warren said that the US Operation Valley Wolf – on the Makhmour front south of the Kurdish capital of Erbil – “will help set the conditions for the liberation of Mosul.” He said that three villages -- Kudilah, Kharbardan and Karmadi – had been liberated, with artillery support by a US Marine base in the vicinity. “Those guns have been firing, probably daily. They have not received much in the way of enemy contact since the Iraqis began their push west, and that's for the simple reason that the Iraqi -- that the enemy now has its hand full with Iraqis,” Warren said. Iraqi forces began an offensive on the Makhmour front on March 24, backed by Kurdish Peshmerga forces. Iraq's Defense Minister Khaled al-Obeidi, who visited the Makhmour front to monitor the offensive, confirmed reports that Iraqi soldiers had not were not advancing as they would have liked, confirmed that was true. In “the beginning the operation was slow and that was because we were not familiar with the area,” Obeidi explained to journalists. “We want to start the operation slowly to see what kind of tactics they (ISIS) use against us,” he said
