He also said that the participation of Shiite militia known as Hashd al-Shabi in operations against Islamic State (ISIS) in that region is a political decision.
“Yes that is right, at 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.”
“There are some villages that are not important and they have been recaptured without any confrontation, but there are some villages that are of significant strategic importance,” he said.
“Generally speaking operations are ongoing and they will continue. The morale of the Iraqi Army is good,” he added. “We see in coming days how successful operations will be.”
Obeidi said that ISIS militants are using some new tactics against Iraqi army but haven't been able to counter the Iraqi army's new weapon systems. He also said that ISIS militant have lost morale which, "is not same as it used to be."
“The operations to be continue and reinforcements comprising of the Nineveh police, Hashd al-Shabi, security forces and other Iraqi forces will be deployed to the region,” he added.
Obeidi also revealed that the Iraqi Army needs a military hospital to transfer wounded soldiers to via helicopter so as not to be overly dependent on the Kurdistan Region's hospitals.
In term of Kurdish Peshmerga participation in the operations Iraqi defense minister said “Peshmerga will have a significant role in case any unwanted incident happens. As you may now division NO.91 are all Kurds. They have a substantial role in this operation, and will contribute to our advances.”
“The US-led coalition doesn’t participate in this war on the ground, they just support us logistically and by air strikes,” Obeidi said. “There is no foreign soldier participating in this operation. As we have said in our meetings with the coalition if we need any force on the ground we will ask, but we have not asked so far.”
