Los Angeles Times: advisers Americans fighting alongside Iraqis in the front lines


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02/22/2017 (0:01 pm) - The number of readings: 124 - Issue (3859)


Translation: Ahmed al - Zubaidi

It became military advisers are currently fighting alongside Iraqi troops near the front lines of the fight against al Daesh, a sign of President Trump's willingness to grant more freedom to American leaders more than they had at the start of ground operations launched by Iraqi forces against al Daesh more than two years.

Trump's management has not yet new powers to the leaders of the Americans granted but eased restrictions on US generals who run the war, which allowed hundreds of US troops join Iraqi forces, which is embarking on the most complex mission yet: edit Mosul, Iraq's second city.

Allow US troops to go to the front edge of the battle was unthinkable probably under the Obama administration, which was reluctant, fearing to be seen as a display of American lives at risk in a foreign war.

Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, commander of US forces in Iraq and Syria, that in recent weeks, Iraqi forces accompanied by about 450 members of the US special forces and observers to direct air strikes against al Daesh sites, and provide advice to field commanders Iraqis on how best to move forward on the battlefield towards liberalization, west of Mosul.

He told reporters at a military base at Baghdad International Airport "It is true that we are closer and deeper work in the Iraqi squad, but we have to amend our situation during the battle to liberate the east of Mosul, and doing a disservice part of advisers in advanced configurations."

He revealed Townsend for this information during the visit of US Secretary of Defense James Mattis to Baghdad ", the first to the Iraqi capital since taking office, and plans to Matisse provide fight plan more effectively to the White House before the end of the month to defeat al Daesh, and hinted at his willingness to grant more freedom to officers States United supervisors of the war.

"We will absorb any requests from commanders in the field, at the present time, the allies - as the preparation of the victims - have borne the brunt of this battle in the land appear."

He was allowed to put US troops near the battle lines, not in the rear lines had granted silently in November under President Obama is serving his last days in power.

It was not clear why Obama to grant such powers, but it seems that the generals of the United States who are working to fight al Daesh designers under the new climate of freedom in which they live under the presidency of Trump to take full advantage of these authorities.

In addition, the command Trump, Matisse put a new battle plan to defeat al Daesh which is scheduled to be announced at the end of this month.

The Pentagon did not publicly announce the change in procedure, but it became clear after he was spotted dozens of American soldiers in uniform are fighting side by side with the Iraqi forces in the attack on western Mosul, the last stronghold of the hippocampus to regulate Daesh in the country.

Colonel John Dorian, a spokesman for the campaign against Daesh US forces, "said US forces can now go to the nearest point you need to reach.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi start the long-awaited offensive in the early hours of Sunday, and by nightfall was restored about seven square kilometers on the southern outskirts of the West Bank of the Tigris River.

Iraqi forces have stepped up their offensive on Monday, to get a foothold close to the southern entrance of the city on the second day of the attack.

The official media in Iraq, said units of the federal police and special forces arm, and the Department of Emergency Response, seized control of the area of ​​the Albu Saif, another areas controlled by the organization before entering the city. Making the Iraqi forces are around the corner from the Mosul airport at the southern end of the city.

The second prong of the attack is combing the highway between Baghdad and Mosul, leading to the city, and the tightening of the siege, which lasted a week on the western half of the city of Mosul.

Monday afternoon gathered convoys of dozens of Humvees and anti-mine vehicles and bulldozers belonging to a counter-terrorism Ahdban ​​near the village, about eight kilometers from the city.

Iraqi officials say the terrain of western Mosul areas has made it clear that there is a need for US military advisers are working side by side with the Iraqi forces to help make more accurate air strikes. Because of the nature of the densely populated region and being old city with narrow streets, and includes a number of alleys and communities that were built close to them, any miscalculation could cause the loss of archaeological sites is priceless.

Sabih said Noman, a spokesman for the anti-terrorist device that there is little room for error. The magnitude of combat vehicles is very wide, it could not navigate through many of the streets, so you will have to Iraqi insurgents fighting from house to house.

The liberation of eastern Mosul last month at the hands of Iraqi forces. The process took four months of hard fighting and backed by hundreds of air strikes, the international coalition led by the United States.

Brigadier General in the US Air Force Matt Isler, can the fighter aircraft that dropped a bomb weighing about one ton to destroy a single building. In the western side of Mosul, a bomb destroyed eight buildings.

Isler said, it is necessary to have American monitors to help mitigate the effects of air raids on the city's buildings.

President Trump has said repeatedly during the campaign that he was determined to make a priority in his administration to defeat al lived policy, and went as far as Obama described as a "create" a set of circumstances that led to the establishment of the organization Daesh. In his inaugural speech, he pledged to "erase" Islamic terrorism completely from the face of the earth.

It is not at all certain that the new military plans in light of Trump's management will accelerate at the end of the battle against Daesh but Msaoleuen Iraqis think it will be decisive in the fight against about two thousand fighters of the organization were still inside the city.
And expelling terrorists from Mosul is the main goal of the government's fragile Ebadi, who set a goal to regain control of the land and the borders of his country by the end of this year.

There is no doubt that the attack, which the United States supported with fifty thousand fighters from Iraqi forces on a major urban center's success will mark a turning point in the war that was slow-moving points, and saw the number of continuous setbacks, since Iraqi troops abandoned the city and left their weapons behind in 2014 .

Even with the presence of US special operations near the battlefield forces, the biggest burden will fall on Iraqi forces to expel the militants and secure the city.

When ascended Matisse US Defense Secretary to the cargo plane C-17 with the emergence of the morning sun, he said his trip this represents the first return him to war-torn Iraq, where he spent years in combat as an infantry officer in the Navy before retiring from his position as a general four-star general in 2013.

He said he was encouraged after talks with al-Abadi and a number of senior officials in the Iraqi government despite the fact that the war in Iraq has become almost continuously for more than two decades.

"There are a lot of bad times here, and there is no doubt that my discussions proved that the Iraqi people and the Iraqi army, the Iraqi political leadership aware of it."

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