Last days before Mosul's fall to ISIS: A lowdown

The city of Mosul fell to ISIS between 4–10 June 2014, when ISIS insurgents, initially led by Abu Abdulrahman al-Bilawi, defeated the Iraqi Army, led by Lieutenant General Mahdi Al-Gharrawi.

This ignominious fall was caused by conspiracies of the pro-Iran politicians ruling the county at the time, analysts said, citing Nouri al-Maliki as the main perpetrator of the disaster.

Lead-up to fall

Since December 2013, ongoing clashes have occurred between tribal militias, Iraqi security forces, and ISIS throughout western Iraq.

In early January 2014, ISIS terrorists successfully captured the cities of Fallujah and H?t, bringing much of Anbar Province under their control.

The Iraqi Army then began conducting an offensive into Anbar, in an attempt to bring the region back under government control.

Iraqi forces recaptured Samarra on 5 June 2014, and also heavily shelled Fallujah to weaken ISIS terror bastions there.

But ISIS had made territorial advances in neighboring Syria, giving them access to more weapons and substantially strengthening their position.

What happened?

Few days before the fall of Mosul, a new command for Nineveh Operations has been appointed, including Abud Kanbar, deputy chief of staff of the army, and the commander of ground troops Ali Ghaidan.

For ISIS, the terror group entrenched its positions in the districts it controls. It detonated a car bomb at the headquarters of Om al-Rabeiain Police Directorate in the district of Zanjili.

This bombing ended the presence of the government forces in the area, especially al-Najar district.

The new command commissioned the Second Division of the army to fend off the area's defense line.

Brigadier Mohsen Falhi arrived in Mosul from the left bank, leading a military column consisting of 20 vehicles.
He attempted to storm Najar district through the Third Bridge. But a sniper opened fire on the military vehicles, leading the rest of the column to turn tail.

Falhi contacted Ghaidan to tell him of the terror attack, and he has no enough forces to continue pushing on the terrorists.

The Iraqi forces continued to shell these districts from the left bank of Mosul. And this shelling triggered a big exodus of civilians.

Some civilian crossed the first line of defense extending from Baghdad Street near Mosul hotel to Yarmouk Bridge.

Others were prompted to grope their way through the war-torn area on foot to the western parts held by the government forces.

From this point, they headed to western Mosul's districts.

Solidarity

Residents and youths of Mosul in the safe areas lined the road to welcome the displaced persons.
They handed out food, fresh water and medical aid.

Yet government vehicles ferried children, women and aged men to safer districts in the doomed city, opening rest houses and offering food and shelters.

However, a final straw turned things upside down. ISIS terrorists detonated a vehicle near Mosul hotel on the Third Bridge.

This explosion triggered a strange withdrawal by all the 50,000 government troops to the left bank of Mosul.

Treason

Mosul residents woke up on June 14th in 2014 to find themselves in captivity by the terrorists of ISIS.

The civilians found themselves in a seemingly endless nightmare, with ISIS killing, torturing and forcing civilians from home.

Not only the rank and file police and army personnel are those who fled the battlefield, but senior officials in the city including the governor Athil al-Nujaifi fled and left the powerless civilians behind him.

Reports emerged only two days after the fall of Mosul stated that the senior military officials sent by the then-premiere Nouri al-Maliki facilitated Mosul's fall to the terror group.

Looking at these ignominious developments, experts called for not repeating mistakes of the past.
Will we learn the lesson not to let this disgrace take place again? They wondered.



https://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/sto...ISIS-A-lowdown