ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Hundreds of US troops have landed at an air base south of Mosul, according to reports Saturday, as efforts get
underway for an offensive to liberate the city from the Islamic State
(ISIS).
The troops arrived at an airbase in the town of Qayyarah, which was recaptured from ISIS by the Iraqi army last month, according to a CNN report citing an unnamed US defense official.
“The American forces operating there will mainly provide logistics, supplies and support for the Iraqi offensive on Mosul. The move brings US personnel closer to the battle and ISIS' defensive lines,” the CNN report said.
It added that the facility, about 65 kilometers south of Mosul and strategically important because of its proximity to the ISIS stronghold in Iraq, is expected to be rebuilt to allow US and coalition aircraft to operate from there.
"When the (Iraqi Security Force) is ready to move on in their operations to get after Mosul, we'll be prepared to support that and the airfield will be ready," Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian told reporters Tuesday at the Pentagon.
"This is a partnered effort. This is something we're working from both the land component perspective with the Iraqis and clearly ensuring that, as we begin to put some of our airplanes in there (Qayyarah) in the future, that it's got the capabilities that we need," Harrigian added.
CNN quoted “several US officials” as saying that the assault on Mosul, the last major Iraqi city still in ISIS hands, could begin as early as
October.
The offensive on Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, will involve the Iraqi military, the Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga forces and the US-backed coalition against ISIS.
The Iraqi Security Forces have been stationed in Qayyarah since its liberation in July. They took over the airbase a month earlier.
Meanwhile, the Kurdish Peshmerga forces advanced further into Nineveh Province last month, snatching back large chunks of territory from ISIS and leaping closer to Mosul.
“In some areas the Peshmerga are only seven kilometers away from Mosul, in some other areas 10 kilometers,” Peshmerga commander Sheikh Jaffar Mustafa told Rudaw last month. ”The Peshmerga are much closer to Mosul than the Iraqi army is,” he said.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi remains confident that his forces can push ISIS from Mosul by the end of the year. He repeated this
promise earlier this month at the sixth TEDx Baghdad conference.
Abadi first made the pledge as 2015 came to a close – following the liberation of the city of Ramadi from the militants by the ISF. He also vowed he would still meet this deadline following the recapture of Fallujah from the militants in late June.
In late August, the head of the US Central Command (CENTCOM), General Joseph Votel, said Iraq’s fight against ISIS is indeed gathering
momentum.
“It’s the (Iraqi) prime minister’s objective to have that done by the end of the year,” Votel told a news conference. “My assessment is that
we can meet … the prime minister’s objectives, if that’s what he chooses to do.”
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