Before liberation, Baghdad-Arbil media war started


Thursday, August 18, 2016 4:02 AM


Baghdad/ Iraq TradeLink:


New-old conflict appeared in the horizon between Baghdad and Arbil on the Kurdish Peshmarga march towards Mosul city, center of Nineveh province, which was occupied by Da'ish (ISIS) organization since June, 2014.

Baghdad stresses that the Peshmarga forces should stay in their positions as a support to the Iraqi regular army, but Arbil confirmed its progress and "never leave the liberated areas".

Premier Haidar al-Ibadi's office rejected the Kurdish statements on the continued progress of the Peshmarga forces, pointing that "any political conflict on the disputed areas should be postponed".

The office stressed that that "the main concentration, now, should be made how to achieve victory over Da'ish organization".

"We do not accept utilizing the current conditions as de facto in Nineveh", the office added.

In reply, the Kurdish governmental spokesman Sifin Dizi'i announced that the Peshmarga forces will continue "liberating the Kurdish areas in Mosul" and stressed that "the forces will not withdraw from the liberated areas".

These counter-statements occur when the Peshmarga forces penetrated for 20 kilometers, during two days, where they re-gained 12 villages which were under Da'ish control.

On the other side, Iraqi experts expect that the current Iraqi forces in Nineveh province are "not sufficient" to commence the operations this year, which are expected to be postponed till 2017, as reported by Dr. Yehya al-Kubaisi, advisor at the Iraqi Center for Strategic Studies.

He pointed out that there is no "tribal" mobilization in Nineveh province capable of running the battle and no governmental will to arm this tribal force, in addition to the differences with the Kurdish Peshmarga and the Shiite Popular Mobilization Forces.


But he admitted that the United States shall be the force that will determine Mosul's battle, not the Iraqi government.


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