Makhmour clashes fail to achieve Iraqi army objectives

Clashes in Makhmour, where the Iraqi army has been fighting the Islamic State (ISIS) to capture key villages before any thrust into Mosul, have not achieved their aim of capturing the strategic Nasser village.

Coalition warplanes, the Iraqi military and its allied Sunni militia, as well as a US Marines base providing artillery support, have been bombarding Nasser village since Thursday.

Coalition warplanes as well as Iraqi and a coalition artillery base have been bombarding Nasser village for the last three days.

The Iraqi army and its allied Sunni militia, the Hashd al-Watani, tried to push ahead several times. But due to resistance by ISIS fighters they could not raise the Iraqi flag in the village that overlooks the Tigris River in the southeastern Nineveh plains.

The Kurdish Peshmerga have not taken part in the offensive and have so far played a supporting role, apart from some volunteers.

The attacks are the first stop in a larger war to liberate Mosul. To do that, Iraqi forces must liberate dozens of villages and towns around Mosul.

The Iraqi army could not recapture any of the villages on the Makhmour front, but it manage to recapture three villages of Kuyila, karmrdi and kharabardan on a separate western front.