#mosul iraq

[tylerstevenson]

The Battle for Mosul: The Rise and Fall of ISIS

The Battle for Mosul: Unmasking the Rise & Crushing Fall of ISIS. In 2014, ISIS seized control of Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city. Their brutal rule forced thousands of innocent civilians to flee for their lives. ISIS used sophisticated propaganda to recruit fighters from around the world. But in 2016, a coalition of Iraqi and international forces set out to liberate Mosul. They launched relentless airstrikes, targeting ISIS positions. And ground troops marched forward, as the battle for Mosul intensified. Meanwhile, trapped civilians endured unimaginable hardships under ISIS rule. Those who managed to escape sought refuge in overcrowded camps. Medical teams worked tirelessly, treating the injured and saving lives. The battle to regain Mosul turned into a grueling urban war, street by street, house by house. As coalition forces closed in, they flushed out ISIS fighters from their hiding places. ISIS leaders started surrendering, their once-powerful empire crumbling. And finally, on July 9, 2017, the Iraqi Prime Minister declared victory in Mosul. But the battle for Mosul left the city in ruins, with countless lives forever changed. Still, the people of Mosul remain resilient, rebuilding their lives and their city. Their indomitable spirit serves as a beacon of hope for a brighter future.

[wgm-beautiful-world]

Great Mosque, Mosul, IRAQ

[wearepeace]

“If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, will answer you: I am here to live out loud.” ― Émile Zola

[captain-price-unofficially]

An Iraqi Police Artillery Battalion bombard IS positions in Mosul before the final assault.

[totallyhussein-blog]

Armenia to recognize 3rd August as Day of Commemoration of Yazidi Genocide

The Armenian Parliament voted this week to designate August 3rd as the official commemoration day for the victims of Yazidi Genocide. The bill submitted by ethnic Yazidi MP Rustam Bakoyan passed the first reading with 88 votes in favor. Armenia will thus become the first country after Iraq to enshrine this into law.

“Genocide is a crime against humanity, and it is the biggest crime. This is a direct result and a direct consequence of incorrect and improper condemnation of the Armenian Genocide in 1915. The destinies of Armenians and Yazidis are quite similar, and our destinies have always crossed paths. We have often found ourselves in the same situations in different stages of history,” Bakoyan said as he presented the bill.

“The Republic of Armenia, adhering to the policy and priority it adopted in the process of prevention and condemnation of genocides, in 2014 condemned the genocide of Yazidis in Iraq from the high podium of the United Nations. In 2015, the Yazidi genocide in Iraq was condemned by the Armenian National Assembly factions, and in 2018 by the National Assembly,” the MP said.

“The prevention of genocide and crimes against humanity is one of the priorities of Armenia’s foreign policy,” Deputy Foreign Minister Paruyr Hovhannisyan said, adding that Armenia actively supports the measures aimed at the prevention and condemnation of the mentioned crimes, the processes of further development of tools and mechanisms for the prevention of genocides and other mass crimes, both on bilateral and multilateral cooperation platforms.

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Oved Lobel

In Iraq, the combination of militias and security forces that liberated Mosul from IS, backed by US and allied airpower and artillery, were fighting to take back their own city, with a population almost entirely hostile to IS. They had around a year to plan the operation, had all the initiative and were under no domestic or international political or time constraints to complete the operation within a given period. Moreover, the Iraqi security forces lost more than 1,200 men in the battle, and perhaps more than 8,000.

Israel, by contrast, had approximately a week to plan an incredibly complex operation, having been caught entirely off-guard by the Hamas invasion on October 7. The IDF is fighting to remove a terrorist regime from territory Israel does not control and where the population is almost entirely hostile to Israel and supportive of Hamas.

In addition, Israel cannot afford an operation that lasts as long as the battle for Mosul did, nor can it afford the number of casualties sustained by Iraqi security forces around Mosul or US partner forces in Raqqa. The reason for this is simple: because of Israel’s conscript and reservist system, its soldiers are drawn from its workforce. On top of that, there is an insurmountable political and social imperative in Israeli society to preserve the lives of soldiers insofar as possible.

Internationally, meanwhile, pressure on Israel to either finish the war as quickly as possible or simply halt it entirely, regardless of the outcome, has been building since even before Israel launched its ground operation.

There are also substantive differences, both tactically and numerically, between Hamas and IS, including the reality that Hamas had 16 years to build up its much more impressive and embedded military infrastructure in civilian areas.

Finally, a key difference between the battlefields, one of many, is that the US and its partners on the ground were able to facilitate the evacuation of civilians from both Raqqa and Mosul before and during the battles, leaving far smaller civilian populations trapped in the cities while also reducing the battlespace by allowing IS operatives to leave the cities. IS eventually melted away and transitioned back into an insurgency.

In Gaza, where Hamas utilises every inch to attack Israel and is unwilling and unable to leave the battlefield like IS did, it is unfortunately impossible for civilians to flee to fully safe areas. They cannot exit into the Sinai both because Egypt will not allow it and because the international community has decided that temporarily displacing Palestinian civilians out of Gaza is worse than keeping them as human shields for Hamas.

Given all these factors, one would expect an Israeli operation necessarily to be more destructive over a shorter timeframe and to result in more civilian casualties. However, this indicates little about the conduct of the war.

[swdefcult]

[eretzyisrael]

by Jonathan Spyer

Examination of the casualty rates of civilian and military dead in Mosul and currently in Gaza further indicates the similarities. In both cases, the figures must be treated with some skepticism.

Regarding Mosul, estimates vary widely. Figures for the number of ISIS fighters killed range from 7,000 to 25,000. Regarding the number of civilians killed, again, the span is wide. At the lower end, the Associated Press quoted figures suggesting between 9,000 and 11,000 civilians died in the course of the Mosul fighting. The Iraqi Kurdish Asayish intelligence service, meanwhile, estimates that around 40,000 civilians were killed.

In terms of ratio, this means that estimates suggest that there were anywhere between one and four civilians killed in Mosul for each ISIS fighter slain.

Regarding Gaza, the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry in the Strip claims that 20,000 Gazans have been killed so far in the Israeli incursion. The 'ministry' records that all those killed are civilians, i.e., it asks observers to believe that not a single Hamas fighter has lost his life in the fighting.

Ron Ben-Yishai, most veteran of Israel's war correspondents (and very far from an apologist for the current Israeli government), quoted Israeli military sources this week as estimating that somewhere between 7,000 and 9,000 Hamas fighters have been killed in the fighting.

In so far as it can be currently ascertained, the ratio of civilian to military dead in Gaza appears then to broadly resemble that of Mosul.

So similar precipitating events, and comparable military campaigns. Yet the response in the West has been starkly different. No one demonstrated for the civilians killed by coalition bombing during the ISIS war (I personally witnessed enormous mass graves in Raqqa city, rapidly dug by Islamic State to bury the victims of that bombing). There were no furious crowds in Western cities denouncing "genocide." Most in the West understood, rather, that the deeds of Islamic State and its ideology made it necessary that it be removed from power, in spite of the undoubted ugliness and the deaths of innocents that this would involve.

So what's the answer? Why this stark contrast? It is difficult not to conclude that the unique place of the Jew in parts of both Islamic and Western political culture and consciousness lies somewhere at the root of the cause. Perhaps some more pleasant explanation can be found. The discrepancy, in any case, is obvious, and enormous.

[zyeith]

[dougielombax]

The Assyrians and Yazidis in Iraq are in a very precarious position.

One that ISN’T helped at all by Turkey’s ongoing fuckery (alongside the KDP) in the country!

[baebeylik]

Page from the Kitāb al-Diryāq. Medieval medical book describing various antidotes for poisons. This page depicts several Greek and Roman doctors of antiquity who are stylized to resemble 13th century Iraqis and Seljuks.

12th to 13century. Thought to have been created in Mosul.

[tinyreviews]

Major Jasem’s quirk about cleaning up trash is a nice touch. And such a heartwrenching one too. Goddamit, such a nice touch. Must Watch, if you are into military action. Reminds me of Saving Private Ryan.

Mosul is a 2019 Arabic-language American war action film written and directed by Matthew Michael Carnahan. It stars Suhail Dabbach, Adam Bessa, and Is’Haq Elias.

[captain-price-unofficially]

Iraqi ERD member targets an IS drone with a jamming device during the Battle of Mosul, 2016.

[totallyhussein-blog]

“Iraq, you are in our hearts”

The Awafi Kitchen is where Arab and Jewish cuisine are one. They are part of the Iraqi Jewish community and are based in Boston, USA. All of their family were displaced from Iraq between 1950 and 1970. The following statement and photograph were posted on the Facebook page of the Awafi Kitchen, and was titled ‘Our Return to Iraq’.

“Last month, after five decades away, members of our family finally walked the streets in Baghdad, the city they once called home. Out of hundreds  of us in diaspora across the world, we were the first in our family to set foot in Baghdad since our waves of displacement between the 50s and 70s.

The trip was every feeling all at once. Pure joy, gratitude, and reconnection, inextricable from the grief and pain of facing our decades of separation, and seeing much of our family’s hometown deeply changed. 

Our whole lives we’ve dreamed of witnessing the beautiful Baghdad we have been painted in memories. We found beauty, but also bore witness to the impact of decades of war, the US occupation, and ongoing resource extraction, and how this has limited the place’s ability to thrive.

That being said, the people we met were incredible. We spent two weeks surrounded by an abundance of love and warmth everywhere we went. There's beautiful new realities rebuilding. Iraqis returning, Iraqis who have stayed through it all. 

Tender moments of mutual curiosity and excitement: younger Iraqis eager to learn about the old Baghdad of our family’s youth, the lost Jewish history of the city, and in turn our family eager to learn what it’s like to live as an Iraqi in the contemporary world. And ultimately, as friends reminded us, we accomplished our goal: it was just about touching foot to earth, and that we did.

For any Iraqis considering returning like we did, know that you can count on us for advice or perspective. Don’t hesitate to reach out. And for Iraqis with a reluctance to return, for those who still cannot, we empathize with you. Iraq, you are in our hearts.”