News Story: Turkish FM says Iraqi Kurdish referendum "wrong decision"

BAGHDAD, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Wednesday arrived here to hold talks with Iraqi leaders and to demand that the Iraqi Kurds cancel their referendum for independence.

"We have said, several times, that the referendum of Kurdistan is a wrong decision, and today when I will visit Arbil (capital of the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan), I will repeat what I said that the referendum is wrong decision which will create problems and a new crisis," Cavusoglu said at a joint news conference with his Iraqi counterpart Ibrahim al-Jaafari.

"We hope that Arbil would retreat and cancel the referendum, as it is for the interest of the Kurds to preserve Iraq's unity," Cavusoglu said.

"We wish that all the problems between Baghdad and Arbil be solved to preserve the integrity of Iraq. We (Turkey) are ready to play a role to help solving the problems if the two sides asked us," he said.

Read the full story at Xinhua

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PacificSentinel: Lets be frank here, the main reason Turkey has a problem with Kurdish independence is that a large chunk of Turkey is actually part of Kurdistan, as you can see in the above map.

News Report: Trump - North Korean Threats 'Will Be Met With Fire & Fury'

US President Donald Trump

Pyongyang "best not make any more threats to the US," US President Donald Trump told the press pool in Bedminster, New Jersey, on Tuesday, as any attempts at intimidation "will be met with fire & fury -- and frankly power -- the likes of which the world has never seen before."

North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un "has been very threatening beyond a normal state," Trump said, adding "they will be met with the fire and fury and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen before," before concluding his remarks by saying "thank you."

The latest round of saber-rattling comes as reports surface from Japanese and US intelligence indicating that North Korea has finally obtained nuclear capable ICBMs. 

US intelligence analysts have informed the Washington Post that the Defense Intelligence Agency completed an assessment in July indicating North Korea has achieved its goal of building ballistic missile-equipped nukes. A white paper from Tokyo leaked Tuesday indicates Japanese intelligence has come to a similar conclusion.

News Story: Journey to statehood still long for Iraq Kurds

By Jean Marc Mojon

Many Iraqi Kurds hailed last week's announcement of a September referendum on independence as historic, but major obstacles will remain on the path to statehood after an expected landslide "yes".

The autonomous region is still at war with the Islamic State group, it hosts a displaced population of more than a million and its once promising economy has taken a double hit from conflict and low oil prices.

The northern region's leader, Massud Barzani, announced on June 7 that a referendum would be held in Kurdish areas of Iraq on September 25 to ask voters if they want a separate state.

The vote is non-binding, but sets the wheels in motion for an independent state that has been gestating since Iraq's Kurds gained autonomy from Baghdad on the back of the 1991 Gulf War.

Read the full story at SpaceWar

News Story: Will Daesh 3.0 Rise From Mosul’s Ashes?

Map of Ethnic Groups of Iraq (Click Image to Enlarge)

By JAMES KITFIELD

They’re surrounded, targeted by constant bombardments and slowly strangled of supplies and reinforcements for months so fighters for Daesh (aka ISIS) might reasonably have abandoned Mosul and tried to slink off into the night.

That’s what happened last June in the battle to recapture Fallujah, when Daesh fighters were relatively quickly routed, and hundreds were killed by U.S. aircraft when their fleeing convoy was spotted in the dark with infrared targeting systems. Everyone in the anti-Daesh coalition hoped for a similar retreat by demoralized terrorists that would separate them from the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians still cowering in Mosul’s byzantine old city, on the west bank of the Tigris River.

But Daesh’s fighters are not abandoning Mosul, which with the Syrian town of Raqqa, forms the twin-capitals of the self-proclaimed Islamist “caliphate.” They are falling back on defensive positions prepared for two years in the densely congested side streets and alleyways of the old city, gathering Iraqi civilians close as they can as “human shields” and apparently preparing for a last, desperate stand.

The result? “The toughest and most brutal phase of this war, and probably the toughest and most brutal close quarters combat that I have experienced or even read about in my 34-year career,” Army Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, commander of Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve says. A veteran of six combat tours, Townsend calls the fighting in Mosul “the most significant urban combat since World War II.” The tragic byproduct has been an alarming spike in civilian casualties, including a U.S. strike against a reported ISIS truck bomb on March 17 that may have collapsed a nearby building and killed as many as 200 civilians gathered there by Daesh. The U.S. military is still investigating the incident, which drew criticism from the United Nations and Amnesty International.

On a recent trip near the frontlines of the Battle of Mosul, Townsend found a possible explanation for Daesh’s determination to stage an apocalyptic fight to the death in the old city. “Every movement has a well-spring or some home turf where it finds support, and in recently talking to Iraqi and coalition commanders and listening to their intelligence assessments, I heard about neighborhoods supporting ISIS that I remembered from being a brigade commander in Mosul 10 years ago, when those same neighborhoods were sources of support for Al Qaeda in Iraq,” said Townsend, speaking recently to defense reporters by phone from Baghdad. If the Shiite-led Iraqi government fails to reach out to those and other neighborhoods and towns of disenfranchised Sunnis after the fighting stops, he noted, then Daesh’s expulsion from Mosul will likely prove a fleeting victory. “What’s important after ISIS is defeated is that the government of Iraq has to reach out to these groups of people and make sure they feel like they have a future in the Iraqi state,” said Townsend.

Read the full story at Breaking Defense

News Story: Allies vow to destroy IS as attacks overshadow talks

By Dave Clark

The US-led coalition against the Islamic State group vowed to crush the jihadists Wednesday at a meeting overshadowed by an attack in London and civilian deaths in Syria.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson welcomed his counterparts from the mainly Western and Arab 68-nation alliance to Washington with a promise to hunt down IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

But he also warned the coalition is "not in the business of nation-building or reconstruction," amid concerns President Donald Trump is preparing to slash the US foreign aid budget.

Meanwhile, even as the ministers gathered at the State Department, news was breaking of the latest coalition air strike to have reportedly killed dozens of civilians in northern Syria.

Then, as the delegates talked, reports came in from London about an attack on pedestrians and police outside the British parliament. Four people were killed and 40 injured in the assault that police attributed to "Islamist-related terrorism."

Tillerson met with Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson after the coalition summit, but a joint press appearance was cancelled at the last minute.

In a statement released after the meeting, the 68 partners underlined their "determination to intensify and accelerate... efforts to eliminate ISIS" in Iraq, Syria and beyond.

They hailed progress by US-backed local forces against the group's main strongholds in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul and the Syrian capital of its so-called "caliphate," Raqa.

And, as they predicted victory on the battlefield, they vowed to prevent the group's fleeing fighters from spreading instability or from setting up a propaganda base in cyber space.

Read the full story at SpaceWar

News Story: U.S. tells allies to do more to pressure ISIS

By: Matthew Lee

WASHINGTON — The United States on Wednesday urged coalition partners to step up efforts to defeat Islamic State militants as top officials from 68 nations gathered in Washington to assess the fight to retake Iraq's second largest city and advance on the group's self-declared Syrian capital.

"I recognize there are many pressing challenges in the Middle East, but defeating ISIS is the United States' No. 1 goal in the region," Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told the coalition's first ministerial gathering since President Trump took office. 

"As we've said before, when everything is a priority, nothing is a priority. We must continue to keep our focus on the most urgent matter at hand," Tillerson said. 

Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis were hosting Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Ababi and foreign ministers from the coalition partners at the State Department in Washington to explore new ideas to expand the fight against ISIS in the Iraqi city of Mosul and ready the operation to push the militants from Raqqa, Syria. 

They also are preparing for the group's defeat by lining up humanitarian and reconstruction assistance. 

"We are at the stage of completely decimating Daesh," al-Abadi said, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS. 

Read the full story at MilitaryTimes

News Story: Russia's Middle East power play

By: Matthew Bodner

Moscow — A week after concluding its combat mission in Syria, Russia’s flagship Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier had one final mission in the Mediterranean. It was, perhaps, a mission for which the ship was most capable: impressing Third-World strongmen.  

On Jan. 11, Russian news agencies reported that East Libyan general Khalifa Haftar was flown aboard the Kuznetsov for a personal tour from the ship’s captain and a video conference with Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu. The publicized comments were vague and predictable.  

“They discussed pressing issues in the fight against international terrorist groups in the Middle East,” the Defense Ministry was quoted by the RIA Novosti news agency as saying. It was the latest evidence that Moscow is courting Haftar as part of a broader effort across the region.  

In November, Haftar visited Moscow to meet with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Details of that meeting, too,  were scant. But Haftar reportedly asked the Kremlin to assist him in fighting Islamic terrorists in Libya.   

Read the full story at DefenseNews

News Story: The Pentagon could send conventional military forces into Syria

By: Andrew deGrandpre, Michelle Tan and Shawn Snow

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is developing proposals for sending an unspecified number of American military personnel into Syria, conventional ground forces who would augment the 500 combat advisers already there coordinating efforts to destroy the Islamic State. 

First reported Wednesday by CNN, any such deployment would have to be approved by President Donald Trump. However, the commander in chief has directed military leaders to fast track plans for defeating the terror group and, according to White House documents leaked to the media late last month, he has expressed a willingness to expand the United States' presence in war-torn Syria. 

Defense Department officials would neither confirm nor deny the report. 

"We are in the process of conducting our 30-day review of the strategy to defeat ISIS as directed by the president," said Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman. ISIS is another name for the Islamic State. "We are considering a number of measures to accelerate the campaign as part of that review, but no decisions have been made." 

A spokesman for U.S. Central Command, which oversees the Islamic State campaign in Syria and neighboring Iraq, told Military Times that no deployment announcements are imminent. 

However, multiple U.S. Army sources indicated that about two thousand soldiers with the 82nd Airborne Division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team soon may bolster other Army elements already in the region. Currently, about 1,800 paratroopers from the 2nd BCT are in Iraq participating in the U.S. military's train-and-advise mission. The 82nd Airborne Division is based at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.

Citing an unidentified U.S. defense official, CNN indicated additional deployments could happen within weeks. 

Read the full story at MilitaryTimes

News Story: Trump gives generals 30 days for new anti-IS strategy

US President Donald Trump

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Saturday giving the US military 30 days to devise a plan to "defeat" the Islamic State group.

The plan makes good on a key campaign pledge of Trump, who mocked and criticized the slow pace of his predecessor Barack Obama's progress in the fight against the extremist fighters.

The text, which calls for a "comprehensive strategy and plans for the defeat of ISIS," is seen as meaning more US forces and military hardware moving into Iraq and Syria.

Pentagon chief James Mattis is also tasked with recommending changes to US rules of engagement and policy restrictions to eliminate those that "exceed the requirements of international law regarding the use of force against ISIS" under the order, which also seeks to cut the group's financial support.

Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin agreed in a telephone call to establish "real coordination" against the Islamic State group in Syria, according to the Kremlin.

Yet many in the US military are suspicious of Russia's role in Syria, with Moscow seen as seeking first and foremost to support and defend President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

"We have to get rid of ISIS. We have no choice," Trump told Fox News in an interview broadcast Thursday, using another acronym for the jihadist group.

"This is evil. This is a level of evil that we haven't seen."

Read the full story at SpaceWar

News Story: Trump aims to destroy IS, but radical group already on the run - expert

by Matthew Rusling

WASHINGTON, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- While U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to get rid of the Islamic State (IS) once and for all, the radical group is already on the run due to increased pressure over the past year, an expert said in an interview with Xinhua.

Trump reiterated promises to defeat the group after the recent deadly attack on a Christmas market in Berlin, which killed 12 and injured dozens more innocent people. The billionaire president-elect has blasted outgoing President Barack Obama for still not having defeated IS in the radicals' Middle East stronghold.

But Wayne White, former deputy director of the State Department's Middle East Intelligence Office, said actually most of the heavy lifting has already been done, and IS appears to be on its way out.

Ongoing U.S. and coalition aerial bombardment, plus U.S.-backed efforts on the ground by Syrian Kurds, Iraqi Kurds, the Iraqi Army, Sunni Arab Iraqi tribes, Iraqi Shi'a militias, and most recently the Turkish Army in one area, have vastly reduced IS' original territory and seriously degraded its combatant forces and cut it off from abroad, White said.

"Once Mosul is cleared -- the only truly large urban area remaining under (IS) control -- the going will be far easier in Iraq," he said.

Read the full story at Xinhua

News Story: 2016, the year the IS 'caliphate' buckled

By Jean Marc Mojon with Tony Gamal-Gabriel in Beirut

Multiple ground assaults and a deluge of air strikes shrank the Islamic State group's "caliphate" to a rump and decimated its fighters in 2016 but the organisation remains a potent threat.

The jihadists have squandered close to half of the land they controlled in 2014 and many of their losses came this year, which saw major operations by myriad forces and countries.

The loss of symbolic bastions such as Fallujah in Iraq or Dabiq in Syria dented IS's aura, revealing it could not defend places it once vowed were impregnable and central to its own mythology.

The jihadists were driven out of Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's vast western province of Anbar, as well as Manbij in Syria -- strategic areas crucial to the caliphate's territorial continuity.

Earlier this month, they also lost Sirte, their last major bastion in Libya, a country the jihadists had hoped could drive the expansion of the caliphate.

In October, tens of thousands of Iraqi forces backed by air strikes from a US-led coalition launched a massive operation to retake Mosul, the city where IS supremo Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed his "state" in June 2014.

The going has been tough for the security forces in the booby-trapped and sniper-infested streets of Iraq's second city but there is little doubt the vastly outnumbered jihadists will eventually lose their stronghold.

Shaping operations for a similar assault on Raqa, the only other major urban centre in IS hands, were subsequently launched in Syria setting up a battle that could be the caliphate's last stand.

"The loss of Raqa will mean the end of IS's state-building project and would leave the group with no territorial symbol justifying its name of Islamic State," said Mathieu Guidere, a Paris-based professor of Middle East geopolitics.

Western powers, Turkey, Iran, Iraqi and Syrian Kurdish forces and militias and paramilitary outfits have played a part in the surge against IS in 2016.

Read the full story at SpaceWar

News Story: US-backed forces launch assault on Syrian IS 'capital'

By Delil Souleiman with Sarah Benhaida in Mosul

US-backed Kurdish-Arab forces launched an offensive Sunday on the Islamic State group's de facto Syrian capital Raqa, upping pressure on the jihadists who are already battling Iraqi troops in Mosul.

The start of the assault by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) came as Iraqi forces fought inside Mosul for the third day running amid fierce jihadist resistance.

The two cities are the last major urban centres under IS control after the jihadists suffered a string of territorial losses in Iraq and Syria over the past year.

The US-led coalition battling IS is backing both assaults, hoping to deal a knockout blow to the self-styled "caliphate" it declared in mid-2014.

SDF commanders announced the start of the Raqa operation in Ain Issa, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of the city.

"The major battle to liberate Raqa and its surroundings has begun," SDF spokeswoman Jihan Sheikh Ahmed said.

Operation "Wrath of the Euphrates" involves some 30,000 fighters and began on Saturday night, Ahmed said.

SDF forces are advancing on three fronts, from Ain Issa and Tal Abyad to the north of Raqa, and from the village of Makman to the east.

SDF spokesman Talal Sello told AFP forces would first seize areas around Raqa before taking the city itself.

"The fight will not be easy, and will require accurate and careful operations because IS will defend its bastion knowing that the loss of Raqa will mean it is finished in Syria," Sello said.

Read the full story at SpaceWar

News Story: Reaching Mosul caps turnaround for Iraq forces

By W.G. Dunlop

Two years after they withdrew from Mosul broken and defeated, Iraqi forces have capped a dramatic turnaround by reaching the largest city they lost to the Islamic State group.

Just over two weeks into a massive offensive to retake Mosul from IS, Iraqi army and special forces personnel have reached its outskirts for the first time since 2014.

It is the culmination of a long effort to retrain the Iraqi armed forces and replace incompetent commanders that has seen them regain much of the territory lost when IS swept across the country in June 2014.

"The army is not the same army," said Staff Lieutenant General Qassem al-Maliki, the commander of the 9th Armoured Division, one of the units that has forces near Mosul.

Some Iraqi soldiers and police who fought in Mosul in 2014 are taking part in the operation to retake it now, while many others are veterans of previous battles against IS.

The US-led coalition against IS began training Iraqi forces in the wake of the initial jihadist onslaught, and has provided essential air and artillery support as well as advice to the country's troops.

Read the full story at SpaceWar

News Story: Kurdish forces free town from IS militants near Iraq's Mosul

Kurdish Peshmerga

MOSUL, Iraq, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- Kurdish security forces, known as Peshmerga, freed Monday a town from the Islamic State (IS) militants near the city of Mosul, a Kurdish security source said.

The Peshmerga forces, backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, started in the morning their operation to storm the town of Bashiqah, some 30 km northeast of Mosul, and managed to seize the town after fierce clashes during the day, the source from Peshmerga told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

"About 10 suicide bombers have blown themselves up inside Bashiqah after the Peshmerga fighters surrounded their hideouts," the source said.

Sporadic clashes are still underway against small groups of the IS militants in a few pockets at the outskirts of the town, while explosive experts were defusing many landmines and booby traps planted earlier by the IS group, the source said.

Read the full story at Xinhua

News Story: Int'l coalition military chiefs vow to intensify fight against IS

PARIS, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- Defense chiefs of international coalition against the Islamic State (IS) during a meeting here on Tuesday vowed to intensify the fight by putting on track a military offensive to retake Reqqa, IS bastion in Syria.

"Daesh (the Islamic State) did not fall but it is weakened. Now, there is a need to increase our effort," said French Defense Minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian.

Le Drian added that operation to uproot IS insurgents in Iraq's second largest city "was held to our planning."

With the support of the U.S.-led coalition, Iraqi army and Kurdish Peshmerga launched a military offensive to eradicate IS fighters.

They have retaken about 90 villages and towns around Mosul held by Daesh so far, according to media reports.

Read the full story at Xinhua

News Story: Iraq Forces in Fierce Kirkuk Clashes with Daesh

Security forces battled for a second day Saturday with Daesh group gunmen who infiltrated Kirkuk in a brazen raid that rattled Iraq as it ramped up an offensive to retake Mosul.

A toxic cloud released by a fire Daesh militants started at a sulphur plant south of Mosul earlier this week killed at least two civilians and forced some U.S service members to wear masks.

A day after the shock attack on the Kurdish-controlled city of Kirkuk, jihadist snipers and suspected suicide bombers were still at large, prompting Baghdad to send reinforcements.

Special counter-terrorism and intelligence units were hunting down some of the dozens of Daesh fighters who stormed public buildings early on Friday.

"We have 46 dead and 133 wounded, most of them members of the security services, as result of the clashes with Daesh," an interior ministry brigadier general told AFP.

The toll was confirmed by a source at the Kirkuk health directorate, which called for blood donations to assist with the emergency.

The Kirkuk police chief said 48 jihadist attackers had been killed so far and several others wounded, including a Libyan believed to be among the raid's leaders.

"The security forces control the situation now but there are still pockets of jihadists in some southern and eastern neighborhoods," Brigadier General Khattab Omar Aref told AFP.

The large-scale "inghimasi" attack, a term for jihadist operations in which gunmen, often wearing suicide vests, intend to sow chaos and fight to the death rather than achieve any military goal, caught Kirkuk off guard.

The large city, which lies in an oil-producing region around 240 kilometres north of Baghdad, woke up on Friday to find jihadists roaming the streets of several neighborhoods.

They used mosque loudspeakers to broadcast praise of their self-proclaimed "caliphate", which has been shrinking steadily since last year and is looking closer than ever to collapse.

Read the full story at TOLOnews

News Story: Deadly Turkish raids on US-backed Syrian Kurd fighters

By Raziye AKKOC

Turkish warplanes carried out deadly strikes on US-backed militias in northern Syria, including Syrian Kurdish fighters, a monitor said Thursday, action that is likely to raise tensions between the NATO allies.

The army, quoted by the official news agency Anadolu, said the raids hit 18 targets north of the battered Syrian city of Aleppo, areas recently recaptured by the People's Protection Units (YPG) from the Islamic State group.

It said the raids killed between 160 and 200 YPG militants.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights in Beirut, however, put the toll much lower at at least 11 fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)-- a US-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters -- killed and 24 wounded.

Tensions between the US and its NATO ally Turkey have heightened over Ankara's actions against the YPG, which Washington views as an effective force against IS in Syria.

Ankara has repeatedly said it will not allow a "terror corridor" on its southern border and wants to prevent the joining of the Kurdish "cantons" of Afrin and Kobane.

The strikes come on the eve of a visit to Turkey by US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter to discuss developments in the region including the Syrian conflict and the offensive to recapture Iraq's second city of Mosul which began this week.

Ankara considers the YPG and the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) as terror groups linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The PKK, proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union, has waged a bloody insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984.

In a statement, the Kurdish Rojava region in Syria condemned Ankara's actions as "blatant aggression", calling for the United Nations, Moscow and Washington to "put direct pressure on Turkey to stop its attacks".

Read the full story at SpaceWar

Think Tank: Sea, air, land and space updates (18-Oct-2016)

Christopher Cowan, Thulasi Wigneswaran, Elisabeth Buchan and Alexander Vipond

Sea State

The USS Mason, a US Navy Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, was attacked three times last week off the coast of Yemen. The attacks were launched from territory held by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels and were suspected to have been conducted with Chinese-built but Iranian-supplied C-802 anti-ship missiles. While the USS Mason wasn’t damaged in any of the attacks, the ship did deploy defensive countermeasures each time. The US Navy responded to the attacks by destroying three Yemeni radar sites suspected of providing targeting data to the rebels. The attacks on the ship come a few weeks after a UAE catamaran was severely damaged in an anti-ship missile attack in the same region.

Russia continues to beef up its naval presence in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, announcing last week that it was deploying three warships to region. Two of those warships also conducted cruise missiles attacks against targets in Syria back in August. The move comes on the heels of Russia’s only aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, departing for the region, as was announced in September.

News Story: Iraq Forces Launch Battle to Liberate Mosul from Daesh

Iraqi forces have launched a campaign to retake Mosul, the self-declared capital of Daesh, the prime minister said Monday in what the U.S hailed as a "decisive moment" in the battle to crush the jihadist group.

Up to 1.5 million civilians remain in the city, the United Nations said, voicing fears the vastly outnumbered Islamists could use them as human shields as they seek to repel the assault on its last major stronghold in the country.

"Today I declare the start of these victorious operations to free you from the violence and terrorism of Daesh," Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said in a televised address.

Mosul fell to Daesh fighters two years ago as they marched through Iraq and Syria, where the civil war left a power vacuum that they easily exploited.

Its recapture would shatter the group's claim to be running a "caliphate" and would all but end its presence in Iraq as a land-holding force.

That claim received another body blow on Sunday when Syrian rebels retook the town of Dabiq from the group.

The anti-Daesh alliance -- including the U.S-led coalition, Kurdish Peshmerga and Iraqi government forces -- has recently been tightening the noose around Mosul, and the assault has long been predicted.

But they will have to fight their way through Daesh defences to reach the city. Some groups are still dozens of kilometres from Mosul.

Read the full story at TOLOnews

News Story: Iraq Kurdish leader says time for Mosul battle to begin

Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani said Saturday that preparations for the operation to retake Mosul from jihadists have been completed and it is time for the battle to begin.

Forces from Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region are expected to play a major role in the battle for Mosul, the country's second city, which has been held by the Islamic State group since June 2014.

"The time has come to begin the liberation of Mosul," a post on Barzani's official Twitter account said.

"All preparations for the battle to liberate Mosul have been completed," he said in a statement on the Kurdish regional presidency's website.

Read the full story at SpaceWar