The Battle for Mosul

[714562]

Territory?

Whose territory? The Iraqi Army is mostly Shia. They don't want to govern Sunni territory beyond the borders of Iraq. Ditto for the Iranians---they just want to consolidate their power over a Shia-Iraqi satellite state. The Kurds are more interested in carving a state out of Turkish land.

 

[Trajan]

Iraqi Army Corporal openly tells AP he intends to carry out extrajudicial killings in Mosul

Saif, an Iraqi army corporal, the battle for Mosul is intensely personal. Over the course of two years of Islamic State rule, the extremists destroyed his home, arrested his father, killed his brother and forced his fiancee into a marriage with an IS fighter.

Now he's looking for revenge.

"I used to be a normal person. My dream was just to save enough money to build a house so I could get married," the 30-year-old soldier said, nervously fiddling with his cigarette.

All together seven members of his family were killed by the extremists, he said, giving only his first name because he didn't have permission from commanding officers to talk to the media. He only found out about their deaths when he saw a video the militant group released of their killings.

Younis Atiya, a Sunni tribal militia fighter, also frames the operation to retake Mosul as a chance at personal vengeance.

Atiya's village on the edge of Nineveh province was retaken from IS earlier this year. Standing outside the building that was once his home he pointed to the spot outside the garden gate where he watched IS fighters abduct his father.

"They drove up to the house in a pickup truck. We saw them and tried to run away but it was too late," he said. After holding his father for three days, IS killed him and dumped his body. Atiya's relatives had to steal the body from the town morgue in order to give him a proper burial.

"I want to liberate Mosul to save people from the fate that my family suffered," the 30-year-old fighter said. "I spent days here afraid of IS and I don't want anyone else to be afraid. And I want to take revenge for my father."

In Mosul fight, Iraqi forces eye redemption and revenge

 

[Trajan]

Collapse of Mosul Dam 'will be worse than a nuclear bomb'

Just 37 miles (60 kilometers) away from the embattled Iraqi city of Mosul is the Mosul Dam, a structure built on unstable, void-prone gypsum rock. The dam is in danger of a catastrophic collapse, affecting the lives of millions of people.

It's not the dam itself that has American and Iraqi officials worried. It is the ground it was built on. The Mosul Dam was built on the Tigris River and completed in the Mid-1980s, creating Lake Dahuk. It is Iraq's largest dam and serves to generate hydroelectricity and provide water for downstream irrigation.

At full capacity, Mosul Dam holds 11.1 cubic kilometers (2.7 cu mi) of water and provides electricity to the 1.7 million residents of Mosul. It is interesting to note that five firms, from the U.K., the U.S., Italy, Russia and Yugoslavia, were asked, one after the other, to do a study on the site and give their recommendations.

All five of the firms voiced their concerns over the karst foundation the dam would have to be built on and cited complex foundations would be necessary if the dam were built where the Iraqis wanted to put it. Finally, a French firm, Soletanch, was used to carry out in-depth geological studies which occurred between 1974 and 1978.

With total disregard for any concerns over the instability of a dam built on top of a soft and soluble foundation of gypsum, anhydrite and karstic limestone, construction began in 1981, during the reign of Saddam Hussein. Hussein was assured by experts that the stability of the foundation of the dam could be controlled with thorough grouting within the foundation before the superstructure was built.

But Saddam Hussein wanted the project completed quickly, so to speed construction of the dam, engineers blanket-grouted 25 meters (82 ft) deep around the foundation and added a curtain 150 meters (490 ft) directly below the dam. A grouting gallery that would allow continuous grouting of the dam's foundation in order to promote stability was also installed, and workers were trained in how to do the grouting.

But in 2014, when ISIS took over the dam and the Mosul Grout plant, all the workers fled for their lives — although Kurdish forces later retook the dam. This is when it was discovered that ISIS forces had either destroyed or taken all the equipment used to maintain the structure. In addition, one of the two spill gates was found to be broken and had been broken since 2013.

Engineers from an Italian company have been tasked with fixing the Mosul Dam's foundations to stop more than 11 trillion litres of water (11.11billion cubic metres) from flooding Mosul.

Experts are warning their work could be in vain, and should the catastrophe happen, it is estimated 1.5million people could be killed by the floods in an impact described as 'worse than a nuclear bomb'.

Waves of up to 45ft would be unleashed if the dam breaks, and the equivalent to 4.4million Olympic size swimming pools would flood the surrounding areas

Engineers from Italian firm TREVI have 18 months to solidify the dam, which is located 60km north of Mosul.

But professor of water resources and environmental engineering at Lulea University in Sweden has said the structure is doomed regardless of who has control of it.

'No matter how much grouting and maintenance the company will do, it may expand the life span of the dam, but it is just going to delay the disaster.

'It is just a matter of time. It will be worse than throwing a nuclear bomb on Iraq,' he told Al Jazeera.

Damn.

 

[CHL]

Collapse of Mosul Dam 'will be worse than a nuclear bomb'

Damn.

 

[JahFocus CS]

Collapse of Mosul Dam 'will be worse than a nuclear bomb'

Damn.

fukk ISIL!

 

[Ikwa]

"Golden division"

Take a look at @Charles_Lister's Tweet:
How useless is this army

Use well known propaganda websites as your sources brehs

 

[FAH1223]

"Golden division"

Take a look at @Charles_Lister's Tweet:
How useless is this army

Use well known propaganda websites as your sources brehs

Those attacks happened in October and posted on other sites

 

[Trajan]

"Golden division"

Take a look at @Charles_Lister's Tweet:
How useless is this army

Nah they're the most efficient Iraqi fighting force. They are just a victim of their own success. Because they are good they are sent in everywhere first. Iraqis use them for everything

Also:

1) They haven't been able to rely on aerial support because of bad weather as well the fact that Mosul is a densely populated city
2) They have faced an unprecendented number of suicide vehicles which ISIS had 2 years to prepare.
3) ISIS is determined. Unlike other cities where they have vacated, this is a sort of last stand for them. Baghdadi has prohibited retreat and is thought to be in the city himself.

Those stats are not surprising tbh.

 

[Dr. Acula]

A new twist, according to Iranian's Farsnews

"Al-Baghdadi had been severely wounded in the Al-Anbar battle in Western Iraq last month, and his wounds were so lethal that he could not at all move freely," a local Iraqi source told the Arabic service of the Russian Sputnik news agency on Tuesday.

The source said despite long treatment in Mosul, the general health conditions of the ISIL leader deteriorated due to "a deep abdominal cut, damage to his liver and crippling wounds in his left limb.

...Al-Baghdad lost his life in the town of Al-Be'aaj some 100km (60 miles) West of Mosul near the border with Syria..., but his death is concealed....."

Farsnews

How trustworthy is this source?

 

[Ikwa]

Nah they're the most efficient Iraqi fighting force. They are just a victim of their own success. Because they are good they are sent in everywhere first. Iraqis use them for everything

Also:

1) They haven't been able to rely on aerial support because of bad weather as well the fact that Mosul is a densely populated city
2) They have faced an unprecendented number of suicide vehicles which ISIS had 2 years to prepare.
3) ISIS is determined. Unlike other cities where they have vacated, this is a sort of last stand for them. Baghdadi has prohibited retreat and is thought to be in the city himself.

Those stats are not surprising tbh.

"Most efficient". Bruh they lost 50% of their troops in 2 months

These guys rely on the US air force to level cities and when that doesn't happen they get decimated on the field.

 

[Trajan]

"Most efficient". Bruh they lost 50% of their troops in 2 months

These guys rely on the US air force to level cities and when that doesn't happen they get decimated on the field.

That's ducktales. I'd like to see the sources for that. 50% doesn't even sound believable.

 

[The Fukin Prophecy]

"Most efficient". Bruh they lost 50% of their troops in 2 months

These guys rely on the US air force to level cities and when that doesn't happen they get decimated on the field.

Even if those numbers you posted are accurate...

You are seriously underestimating the effectiveness of a weak bytchmade fakkit driving a truck laced with explosives into troop front-lines...

Just because you kill the driver that doesn't guarantee the truck stops moving and doesn't explode...

How do you effectively combat this in a dense city like Mosul without air support?

 

[88m3]

Even if those numbers you posted are accurate...

You are seriously underestimating the effectiveness of a weak bytchmade fakkit driving a truck laced with explosives into troop front-lines...

Just because you kill the driver that doesn't guarantee the truck stops moving and doesn't explode...

How do you effectively combat this in a dense city like Mosul without air support?

Coalition losses weren't that high during the war... if they were losing thousands of troops we would hear about it.

There is a pretty serious media blackout on Mosul right now though.

 

[ⒶⓁⒾⒶⓈ]

damn those suicide trucks are armor plated...this shyts almost unstoppable...you have to use anti tank ordinance

 

[Ikwa]

That's ducktales. I'd like to see the sources for that. 50% doesn't even sound believable.

One senior Pentagon officer with access to daily battle reports on the Mosul fight says the battle for the city has been so intense that the Golden Division’s veteran battalions “are suffering upwards of 50 percent casualties. If that rate stays constant,” he told me, “the division could become combat ineffective in a little over a month, and perhaps even sooner.”

How Iraq’s Army Could Defeat ISIS in Mosul—But Lose Control of the Country

Even if those numbers you posted are accurate...

You are seriously underestimating the effectiveness of a weak bytchmade fakkit driving a truck laced with explosives into troop front-lines...

Just because you kill the driver that doesn't guarantee the truck stops moving and doesn't explode...

How do you effectively combat this in a dense city like Mosul without air support?

All is fair in war. If a dude driving a suicide truck is bytch made, so is a dude in a jet dropping missiles.

Old play by my rules and don't use effictive tactics on us ass nikka