ERBIL, Kurdistan Region— Former Nineveh governor Atheel al-Nujaifi says the looming operation to recapture the ISIS-held city will most likely start in mid-September and could continue well into November before militants are fully driven out of Mosul. Speaking to Rudaw TV on Saturday, Nujaifi said the entire province will be recaptured before the end of this year. “My prediction is based on the preparation of the armed forces led by the international coalition,” Nujaifi said. “I predict that the city will be fully liberated this fall,” he added. The former governor who has been put in charge of the Sunni militia known as the Hashd al-Watani with some 10.000 recruits said Mosul had been besieged by both the Iraqi and Peshmerga forces. To avoid “the total destruction of the city,” Nujaifi urged the residents of Mosul to “cooperate with liberating forces.” “We are ill-prepared to receive the new flow of refugees, that is why I urge the residents of Mosul not to leave their homes when the city is being liberated and instead take part in the operation,” he said without giving further detail about the offensive. Hashd al-Watani was initially established to recruit Sunni fighters who were willing to take part in a possible assault on ISIS in the Sunni heartland of Mosul. Until recently, the group was funded by Iraq’s predominantly Shiite government in a bid to avert sectarian tensions in a region with mostly underprivileged Sunni populations who have often had hostile attitudes towards government policies in Baghdad. Baghdad, however, removed Mosul’s then exiled governor Nujaifi, a Sunni, accusing him of mismanaging the Sunni militia and turning it into his own army. Iraqi government also froze payments to the group in August 2015. Sunni military representatives told Rudaw in December last year that Ankara had been paying the salaries of the troops since. Kurdish authorities have announced that there will be at least five new camps in the outskirts of Dohuk city as the province prepares for a second wave of refugees which are predicted to flee Mosul ahead of the looming operation. Nearly 1,6 million refugees have taken shelter in Kurdish controlled areas since 2013 with authorities calling for international help to avoid a new refugee crisis.
