A military source told the details of the bloody operation to liberate the Iraqi capital ISIS *.
The operation to capture Mosul entered the stage of "slipping". The successive victorious reports about the liberation of another suburb of this strategically located city from ISIL were replaced by "operational pauses."
While the Western media provide stories about the happy deliverance of the residents of Mosul, on YouTube there are videos showing the detonation of the vaunted American M1A1 Abrams tanks by suicide vehicles and ATGMs, footage of at least a hundred units (!) Of burning armored vehicles of government forces and other evidence that Iraqi troops were bogged down in bloody street fighting (see photo and video).
Troops suffer horrific losses
The photo shows 4 destroyed "Hammers" in the Mosul area at once
Official data indirectly speak of huge losses. In order to positively influence public opinion, on air of CNN or BBC TV channels, invited experts assess the losses of the attackers as one soldier of the coalition to two ISIS terrorists.
Such a ratio is not in favor of well-armed and trained militants defending in a fortified city, according to the canons military science, can only be justified by the high efficiency of "pinpoint" strikes against them by aviation and artillery.
But judging by the fact that almost every raid is accompanied by dozens of killed and wounded civilians (which the Iraqi mass media themselves in good faith record), the coalition forces cannot boast of special selectivity in their strikes. This is quite consistent with tactics on the ground: the whole world has already gone around the world with shots of Iraqi soldiers pouring fire indiscriminately on everything around in the streets of Mosul.
However, if we accept the assessments of Western experts as adequate, then the question arises: according to the Iraqi Interior Ministry, in a month of fighting near Mosul, about 2,800 ISIS were killed, out of those 4-5 thousand who initially held the city and its environs.
Then, according to the "talking heads" from Western TV channels, the loss of the coalition per month (!) Should be at least 1,500 (!) Servicemen (at the rate of 1 soldier to 2 militants). One will involuntarily listen to the "ISIS" propaganda, which claims that in the battles for Mosul a whole division of government troops has already been ground.
In any case, photos and videos from the battlefield testify to the horrific losses of the Iraqi Armed Forces.
Against this background, it is worth thinking about what actually caused the non-participation in the storming of Mosul of all other coalition members, except for the federal Iraqi army and the special forces of the US armed forces (which, according to official data, has already lost at least 22 people killed).
To the west of the city is the so-called Shiite militia. From the north and east - the Kurdish Peshmerga and the militia of the Sunni tribes. It was officially announced that the liberation of Mosul itself would be carried out exclusively by the forces of Iraqi regular troops. And now you might think that only they did not have the opportunity to refuse to participate in this operation.
See also: US special forces in Mosul are used as "cannon fodder": losses are growing every day (PHOTOS)
The militants are not fleeing to Syria, but strengthening the defenses
On the other hand, it should be noted that instead of the expected departure of the militants to Syria along the corridor provided by the Americans in the north-west, they not only offer stubborn resistance, but also, according to a number of Middle Eastern publications, are also transferring reinforcements to Mosul.
Different observers explain this in different ways. But an analysis of the tone of publications on the topic of Mosul in the media in Turkey, Qatar, Iran and Iraq is quite capable of providing a hint.
Turkey and Qatar are allies of ISIS
As you know, Turkey and Qatar are allies in organizing the so-called "Sunni corridor" for the supply of energy from the Persian (Arabian for the Arabs) Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea. Because of this, these two countries entered into conflict in 2011 with the government of Bashar al-Assad, who chose to develop joint projects with Iran and Iraq (where Shiites make up the majority of the population).
The "shadow" partners of these states were the Syrian jihadist groups and ISIS, which took control of the territories promising for the "Sunni corridor" in Iraq and Syria.
Now the government of Recep Erdogan, with the support of Qatar, is busy creating a controlled buffer zone in northern Syria, relying on jihadists renamed Free the Syrian army". Few analysts have escaped the fact that ISIS and pro-Turkish FSA units are fighting each other with much less ferocity and tenacity than against the Kurds and the American-created Syrian Democratic Forces.
This suggests that the agreements between the ISIS and the Turks about continuing to conduct a common business under new guise are quite real. The contradictions between the interests of Turkey and Qatar, on the one hand, and the interests of the United States, Great Britain and Iran, on the other, are also becoming apparent.
The Shiite power seeks to prevent the plans of geo-economic competitors from being realized, and the Western allies seem to be interested in the chronic instability of the region as a whole. Therefore, the Pentagon is betting on the separatist Kurdish formations, and the British media in their reports on the events around Mosul in every way incite confessional strife.
Against this background, it is understandable why the Turkish media and the Qatari TV channel Al-Jazeera pay so much attention to the troubles of the Iraqi Sunnis, whom the pro-American coalition and Shiites are “driving out of their native lands”. It is clear why Turkey insists on the participation of its troops in the Mosul operation.
Kurds and Sunni militias avoid fighting
It was after Washington announced that it supported Baghdad's objections to the presence of Turkish troops near Mosul and relied on the Kurdish-based Syrian Democratic Forces to attack Raqqa that the resistance of the ISIS coalition units in both Syria and Iraq became significant more stubborn. And the Sunni militias allied to the Turks and the formations of the Iraqi Kurdistan army refused to continue active operations in the Mosul direction.
On the other hand, the Shiite militia announced their intention to cut the road left for the ISIS to leave Mosul, while the Iranian media cover the storming of this city as if it were an operation of the greatest importance.
As for the Iraqi TV channels and newspapers, among them, surprisingly, the fruits of the overthrow of the dictatorship and the introduction of freedom of speech were evident. Journalists from a number of popular publications yearn for the former "common Iraqi identity" and sympathize with the people of their country who are dying in Mosul both from the bombs and shells of the coalition and from the hands of terrorists.
Last Saturday, the humanitarian pause in Aleppo, set on October 20, expired, but Russia extended it to another three days. All this time, the terrorists fired and tried to disrupt the truce. On the morning of October 24, almost immediately after the end of the pause, the government forces of Syria entered into battle with the militants who had settled in residential areas of the city.
Aleppo: successes of the Syrian army after humanitarian pause
For three days, ISIS militants (a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation) in every possible way prevented the exit of civilians from Aleppo. The truce with the militants fell short of expectations. They refused to leave the city and, on pain of death, forbade civilians to evacuate. Terrorists blocked the streets and shot columns of refugees. Snipers from Al-Nusra (a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation) opened fire on the humanitarian corridor. The terrorists used the inhabitants of the city as human shields.
At a press conference on October 21, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was forced to state:
Both Jabhat al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham and other organizations that cooperate with them, in fact, sabotage the efforts of the UN - with our support, with the support of the Syrian government, to arrange the delivery of humanitarian aid to eastern Aleppo. The routes that such humanitarian aid can take are directly fired upon.
Sergey Lavrov
Thus, after the humanitarian pause, the situation in Aleppo in Once again has reached a dead end. The militants used the break to their advantage. According to the general Sergei Rudskiy, the terrorists were accumulating forces and preparing for a breakthrough into the eastern districts of the city. Despite this, the humanitarian pause still influenced the nature of the relationship between the various IS groups: some of the militants decided to leave the city, but the more reactionary part of the terrorists did not allow them to do so.
Immediately after the end of the ceasefire, terrorists began shelling the positions of the federal forces. The Syrian government army launched a counteroffensive. The army and the Syrian militia have regained control of the hill near residential area 1070. This area is considered one of the most important in the fighting area. The militants reportedly offered fierce resistance and fired mortar fire on government forces.
According to military analyst Boris Rozhin, positional battles were fought in the 1070 quarter. In this area, terrorists were accumulating forces to help the surrounded militants in Aleppo. The seizure of the strategic height opened the way for attacks on the areas of the accumulation of militants located in the areas of the Hikma school, Rashidin-4 and Rashidin-5, building 1070, as well as Khan Tuman, which is a kind of object of accumulation of forces and funds of terrorists.
Later it became known about the seizure by government forces of a military air defense unit in the south of Aleppo, located near the village of Mashrif. Recall that this military facility was seized by terrorists in February 2016. Currently, demining and other engineering and technical measures are being carried out on the territory of the unit.
It can be assumed that the return of control over part of the air defense in Aleppo will increase the combat capability of the Syrian army and will strengthen the air shield over Syria.
So, recently, the Turkish Air Force has repeatedly violated the airspace of Syria, and the leadership of the SAR promised shoot down such planes.
Today it also became known about the capture of the strategic height of Buzz by the Syrian army. This was reported by the Aleppo militia:
“The offensive continues successfully. We, together with the military, took Buzz Hill, another height, and the militants in (block) 1070 will be completely surrounded. "
The Syrian army plans to take the Hekme hill, and then the militants who have settled in the 1070 quarter will be cut off from supplies. By cutting off access for Islamists to these facilities, the government army will be able to cut off the supply of weapons to the militants and accumulate forces for a decisive strike
Iraq: ISIS successes and coalition losses in the assault on Mosul
Meanwhile, the situation in Iraq is not developing in favor of the anti-terrorist coalition led by the United States. On October 21, IS militants captured the city Kirkuk seven quarters of the city and a prison, along the way enrolling prisoners as terrorists. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation called the actions of the banned group a diversionary maneuver:
"The militants appear to have launched an attack on Kirkuk as a distraction. The militants' offensive has taken the coalition forces by surprise. They seem to be at a loss."
Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
The city of Kirkuk is located 170 kilometers from Mosul. It is one of the largest cities in Iraq. The population is 700 thousand people. The city is very compact, its buildings are much denser than Mosul. If the militants gain a foothold in Kirkuk, a very unpleasant surprise awaits the international coalition. At present, the Iraqi armed forces are additionally being pulled into the city, positional battles are being conducted. Iraqi special forces have already killed more than 70 Islamists in the city. However, on October 22, official Baghdad announced that the terrorist forces had stopped their attack on Kirkuk.
Today, October 24, the Peshmerga militia repelled an IS attack on the city Sinjar, which is located west of Mosul. During the fighting, Kurdish forces destroyed seven terrorist vehicles filled with explosives.
In Mosul According to Iraqi intelligence, the militants executed nearly 300 people. It can be assumed that this is done to intimidate the civilian population and demoralize the attacking side. According to experts, the ratio of losses during the offensive on Mosul is 1 to 2: for every soldier killed in the coalition, there are 2 IS terrorists.
The number of casualties in Iraqi Mosul due to the ongoing operation there to free the city from ISIS * terrorists continues to increase every day. Western experts say at least 600 residents of the city have died as a result of coalition troops and airstrikes.
The losses of the Iraqi and American special forces are in the tens.
However, judging by the unofficial information, including those disseminated in the militants' social networks, the military and civilian losses are much higher.
At the same time, the White House constantly makes statements that the United States is trying to minimize civilian casualties, but it is not possible to completely exclude them. Washington cynically calls the deaths of civilians "collateral damage."
The Iraqi authorities, instead of organizing the exit of the civilian population from the city, ask the residents of Mosul ... not to leave it. Experts see the reason for this as Baghdad's lack of resources to support such a huge number of refugees, and Washington does not need the world to remember its November promises to provide asylum to 1 million people.
Even American analysts believe that this strategy will still have to be revised, if only in order to remove civilians from the city during a period of particularly active air strikes. Such, for example, as the last incident with the bombing of the Al-Salem hospital.
Frustrated by the recent successes of the Syrian army and the Russian Aerospace Forces in Aleppo, the command of the coalition led by the United States decided to abandon the previously used tactics of fighting only at the expense of the Iraqi forces and throw their troops into the attack on Mosul.
According to Western media reports, the coalition forces made a rapid dash, the purpose of which was to knock the terrorists out of the area of the Al-Salem hospital, where their "command post" was supposedly located. However, according to a number of Western experts, this statement is nothing more than an attempt to hide the mediocre actions of the coalition, which has lost control over the situation in the area.
Washington, seeking to preserve its reputation at all costs and prevent the capture of Syrian Aleppo before Iraqi Mosul, hastened an operation to storm the city. Iraqi troops, diluted by American special forces, launched an attack on the area near which the hospital was located. But instead of surrounding him, the military decided to break through the enemy's positions with a "wedge". The maneuver was initially a success, but the dismembered groups of militants were able to regroup and unite with the other terrorists who had arrived in time to help. As a result, the coalition servicemen were caught in the ring.
A battle ensued, in which the troops were in a deliberately losing position. There have been several suicide attacks. According to reports, none of them could be prevented.
Then the American side requested air support. With the help of aviation, it was still possible to break through the ring and withdraw the surviving soldiers.
After leaving the encirclement, a number of airstrikes were hurriedly launched in the area. The Al-Salem hospital itself came under fire, which, of course, was not any “headquarters” - there were civilian doctors and several dozen patients. The nearby settlements... According to some reports, from 110 to 180 people died, more than 200 were injured of varying severity.
At the same time, Washington did not provide any evidence of the use of the hospital as a military facility and the absence of patients and personnel in it.
The West in general actively denies the fact of deliberate bombing of a civilian hospital, stubbornly calling it "the headquarters of terrorists." The victims are not announced by the pro-American media, they only talk about large losses among terrorists and the forced death of several Iraqi soldiers.
There is a well-tested American scheme for covering up war crimes: misinformation, substitution of concepts, diversion of the audience's attention and counter-accusations of “competitors”.
Vladimir Norkin, political scientist, specially for "Russian Spring"
* A terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation.
On October 17, 2016, the operation of the Western coalition began to liberate the Iraqi city of Mosul from the militants of the Islamic State (IS) banned in Russia. Since November 1, a direct assault on this city has been underway (so far only from the eastern direction). On November 6, the US allies' operation in Syria "Wrath of the Euphrates" began. Its goal is to liberate the self-proclaimed capital of IS - Raqqa from terrorists.
To capture Mosul, a motley group was created, which included the Iraqi government troops (up to 29 thousand people), the Kurdish self-defense forces - the Peshmerga (up to 4 thousand people), the Shiite and Sunni militias (up to 10 thousand people). Units also take part in the hostilities special purpose armed forces of the United States.
The number of IS militants in Mosul is about 8 thousand people, 2 thousand of whom are foreigners, but the Islamists are actively recruiting local residents loyal to the group in hostilities.
The offensive against Mosul is developing along three main lines. In the north, Iraqi government troops are operating, the main grouping of which is located 12 km from the city. From the northeast, they have already taken possession of the El-Zahra quarter and deeper into the city limits by 1 km. The advancement of Iraqi units and subunits in this direction is 12 km from the beginning of the operation.
The offensive is more effective in the eastern direction. There, the Iraqi armed forces, together with the formations of the anti-terrorist service, the forces of the national federal police and the Peshmerga, captured the quarters of Hei-Aden, Al-Khadr, Al-Karama, Al-Quds and went deep into the city limits by 1.7 km. However, on November 8, ISIS units launched a counterattack, advanced 1 km and captured the Al-Intisar quarter, forcing the Iraqi forces out of the city. Since the beginning of the operation, the advance of government forces from the east was up to 15 km.
To the south, the combined grouping of the Iraqi Armed Forces and Federal Police has advanced 17 to 35 km. Now units and subdivisions of government troops are located 12-15 km from the city limits.
Part of the government forces are making a detour around Mosul from the south-western direction in order to block the main Mosul-Tell Afar road, which is 9 km away.
In other words, the average rate of advance of the Iraqi military is less than 1 km per day. Such an offensive cannot be called anything other than marking time.
The daily pace of the operation, which can be considered successful, is 15-20 km per day.
The actions of the Iraqi group of forces directly are supported by the US Special Operations Forces (MTR) (up to 500 people), units of the Turkish armed forces (230 people), and the Italian armed forces (470 people).
In the course of hostilities, the multinational coalition forces suffer significant losses.
In the US MTR alone, 20 people were killed and 32 were injured during the operation.
Allied aviation, led by the United States, is actively supporting the offensive, striking targets of militants in Mosul and its environs. Since the beginning of the operation, more than 400 air-missile strikes have already been delivered. 1,500 tons of aviation weapons were dropped on Mosul.
Residential areas and urban infrastructure are subject to air strikes. As a result, dies civilians... An example of the indiscriminate strikes of the coalition air force is the bombing of a school in the south of Mosul and residential areas of the settlements of Khazna, Karakosh, Karakharab and Esh-Shura on October 21-23, 2016. During the strikes, more than 60 civilians were killed and at least 200 were injured. Since the beginning of the operation to storm Mosul, more than a thousand civilians have died from the indiscriminate actions of the coalition air force.
Moreover, the plan of the operation did not initially provide for humanitarian pauses, and the corridors for the exit of residents and the evacuation of the wounded arose spontaneously.
According to the UN, since the beginning of the operation, about 48 thousand people have left Mosul. The total number of Iraqi refugees by mid-January 2017 may reach several hundred thousand people (in the future, up to a million displaced persons). Residents of Mosul and its environs are mainly sent to refugee camps in Iraq, in the Ninawa and Anbar provinces south of Mosul. However, even before the start of the operation (as of November 1), these camps were already over 50% full.
A significant part of the inhabitants (mainly Sunnis and Turkomans) flee the fighting to Syria - in the provinces of Deir ez-Zor, Raqqa and Hasaka - and further to the Turkish province of Hatay. Ankara seeks to prevent refugees from entering its territory.
The humanitarian situation in and around the city continues to deteriorate rapidly. There are no doctors, medicines, food and basic necessities. The number of people in need of humanitarian aid in the liberated territories exceeds 50 thousand people. At the same time, international humanitarian organizations are not allowed into the area of operation.
The situation is similar during the assault on Raqqa.
In this case, a motley grouping has also been created. The operation involves the Kurdish self-defense units YPG (up to 25 thousand people), the US-controlled Sunni Arab formations “Raqqa Forces Brigade”, “Liberation Brigade”, “Raqqa Martyrs Brigade” and “Free Raqqa Brigade”, as well as Turkey-controlled “Brigade self-defense Turkoman "and" Battalion of Turkoman Martyrs "(in total - up to 15.5 thousand soldiers).
The US military has allocated 130 Special Operations Forces personnel.
The special forces are solving the tasks of guiding the aviation of the Western coalition at the IS objects. They act as advisers to the command of the Syrian Democratic Forces, as well as coordinate the actions of Arab, Turkoman and Kurdish groups. In addition, the American command is attracting Kurdish self-defense units to support the hostilities.
Opposing directly in Raqqa has about 2 thousand militants, 7 tanks and 12 armored vehicles, 30 automobile "carts" with heavy machine guns installed on them, 4 multiple launch rocket systems, 15 field artillery and mortars, up to 10 anti-aircraft guns and about 7 launchers installations of anti-tank guided missiles. Up to 3 thousand IS militants operate on the outskirts of their capital.
As of November 14, the formations participating in the operation of the Syrian Democratic Forces are moving towards Raqqa along the main transport routes from the north - Ain Isa - Raqqa and Beit al-Hisha - Raqqa.
The main task of the grouping is to blockade the city from the western, northern and eastern directions, thereby creating conditions for the subsequent assault on Raqqa and the cleansing of the city by the forces of Arab and Turkoman formations.
In recent clashes, as well as as a result of US Air Force strikes, IS militants lost 54 people killed and a hundred wounded. One artillery piece and six vehicles with heavy machine guns mounted on them were destroyed. Losses of the SDF - 5 people killed and 15 wounded.
Such low losses of the sides are explained by the fact that so far only small settlements are located in the SDF offensive zone, which are not of any strategic interest to IS. These towns and villages were not turned into powerful strongholds. They did not build long-term defensive structures.
The attacking subunits and units of the SDF have advanced 15 km from the beginning of the operation with practically no serious fighting.
As we approached Raqqa, the resistance of the terrorists increased markedly, and the pace of the offensive decreased to 2 km per day.
Now the line of contact runs at a distance of 20 km from Raqqa. As a result of active opposition from the formations of IS, the Kurdish self-defense units were forced to suspend the offensive. Now they are repelling enemy counterattacks.
In order to hinder the further advance of SDF units towards Raqqa, IS militants in small mobile groups carry out surprise attacks on the enemy and quickly withdraw to prepared positions.
As in the case of Mosul, the operation to take Raqqa does not provide for the introduction of humanitarian pauses and the creation of corridors for the evacuation of the population before the start of the assault. If the residents do not leave the city of Raqqa on their own by the beginning of the assault, they will be considered as terrorists and their accomplices.
A similar practice was already used by the Americans in 2004 in Iraq during the capture of the Iraqi city of Fallujah. Then it led to significant casualties among the civilian population held by the Islamists as a "human shield".
As the fighting approaches the city, there is an increase in the number of refugees. More than 3 thousand civilians have already left Raqqa (mostly old people, women and young children).
The contradictions between the Arab and Turkoman formations, on the one hand, and the Kurdish detachments, on the other, have a negative impact on the course of the operation to storm Raqqa. They are caused by mutual mistrust and unwillingness to cede control over the liberated territories to each other.
It is unlikely that Raqqa will be released from the terrorists by the deadline set by the US military command - mid-December 2016.
Thus, in the operations to storm Mosul and Raqqa, the fighting took on a protracted nature. The storming men are marking time. The number of civilian casualties is growing every day. The humanitarian situation in both cities is rapidly deteriorating. The US-led international coalition has not yet demonstrated significant military successes.
Biography:
- Military columnist for Gazeta.Ru, retired colonel.
Graduated from the Minsk Higher Engineering Anti-Aircraft Missile School (1976),
Military Command Academy of Air Defense (1986).
Commander of the S-75 anti-aircraft missile battalion (1980-1983).
Deputy commander of an anti-aircraft missile regiment (1986-1988).
Senior officer of the General Staff of the Air Defense Forces (1988-1992).
Chief Operations Officer (1992-2000).
Graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (1998).
Observer "" (2000-2003), editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Military Industrial Courier" (2010-2015).
A military source told Russian Spring the details of the bloody operation to liberate the Iraqi capital, ISIS.
The operation to capture Mosul entered the stage of "slipping". The successive victorious reports about the liberation of another suburb of this strategically located city from "ISIS *" were replaced by "operational pauses."
While the Western media provide stories about the happy deliverance of the residents of Mosul, on YouTube there are videos showing the detonation of the vaunted American M1A1 Abrams tanks by suicide vehicles and ATGMs, footage of at least a hundred units (!) Of burning armored vehicles of government forces and other evidence that Iraqi troops were bogged down in bloody street fighting ...
Troops suffer horrific losses
The photo shows 4 destroyed "Hammers" in the Mosul area at once
Official data indirectly speak of huge losses. In order to positively influence public opinion, on air of CNN or BBC TV channels, invited experts assess the losses of the attackers as one serviceman of the coalition to two ISIS terrorists.
Such a ratio is not in favor of well-armed and trained militants defending in a fortified city, according to the canons of military science, can only be justified by the high efficiency of “pinpoint” strikes against them by aviation and artillery.
But judging by the fact that almost every raid is accompanied by dozens of killed and wounded civilians (which the Iraqi mass media themselves in good faith record), the coalition forces cannot boast of special selectivity in their strikes. This is quite consistent with tactics on the ground: the whole world has already gone around the world with shots of Iraqi soldiers pouring fire indiscriminately on everything around in the streets of Mosul.
However, if we accept the assessments of Western experts as adequate, then the question arises: according to the Iraqi Interior Ministry, in a month of fighting near Mosul, about 2,800 ISIS were killed, out of those 4-5 thousand who initially held the city and its environs.
Then, according to the "talking heads" from Western TV channels, the loss of the coalition per month (!) Should be at least 1,500 (!) Servicemen (at the rate of 1 soldier to 2 militants). One will involuntarily listen to the "ISIS" propaganda, which claims that in the battles for Mosul a whole division of government troops has already been ground.
In any case, photos and videos from the battlefield testify to the horrific losses of the Iraqi Armed Forces.
Against this background, it is worth thinking about what actually caused the non-participation in the storming of Mosul of all other coalition members, except for the federal Iraqi army and the special forces of the US armed forces (which, according to official data, has already lost at least 22 people killed).
To the west of the city is the so-called Shiite militia. From the north and east - the Kurdish Peshmerga and the militia of the Sunni tribes. It was officially announced that the liberation of Mosul itself would be carried out exclusively by the forces of Iraqi regular troops. And now you might think that only they did not have the opportunity to refuse to participate in this operation.
The militants are not fleeing to Syria, but strengthening the defenses
On the other hand, it should be noted that instead of the expected departure of the militants to Syria along the corridor provided by the Americans in the north-west, they not only offer stubborn resistance, but also, according to a number of Middle Eastern publications, are also transferring reinforcements to Mosul.
Different observers explain this in different ways. But an analysis of the tone of publications on the topic of Mosul in the media in Turkey, Qatar, Iran and Iraq is quite capable of providing a hint.
Turkey and Qatar are allies of ISIS
As you know, Turkey and Qatar are allies in organizing the so-called "Sunni corridor" for the supply of energy from the Persian (Arabian for the Arabs) Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea. Because of this, these two countries entered into conflict in 2011 with the government of Bashar al-Assad, who chose to develop joint projects with Iran and Iraq (where Shiites make up the majority of the population).
The "shadow" partners of these states were the Syrian jihadist groups and "ISIS", which took control of promising territories for the "Sunni corridor" in Iraq and Syria.
Now the government of Recep Erdogan, with the support of Qatar, is busy creating a controlled buffer zone in northern Syria, relying on jihadists, renamed the Free Syrian Army. Few analysts have escaped the fact that ISIS and pro-Turkish SSA units are fighting each other with much less ferocity and tenacity than against the Kurds and the American-created Syrian Democratic Forces.
This suggests that the agreements between the ISIS and the Turks about continuing to conduct a common business under new guise are quite real. The contradictions between the interests of Turkey and Qatar, on the one hand, and the interests of the United States, Great Britain and Iran, on the other, are also becoming apparent.
The Shiite power seeks to prevent the plans of geo-economic competitors from being realized, and the Western allies seem to be interested in the chronic instability of the region as a whole. Therefore, the Pentagon is betting on the separatist Kurdish formations, and the British media in their reports on the events around Mosul in every way incite confessional strife.
Against this background, it is understandable why the Turkish media and the Qatari TV channel Al-Jazeera pay so much attention to the troubles of the Iraqi Sunnis, whom the pro-American coalition and Shiites are “driving out of their native lands”. It is clear why Turkey insists on the participation of its troops in the Mosul operation.
Kurds and Sunni militias avoid fighting
It was after Washington announced that it supported Baghdad's objections to the presence of Turkish troops near Mosul and relied on the Kurdish-based Syrian Democratic Forces to attack Raqqa that the resistance of the ISIS coalition units in both Syria and Iraq became significant more stubborn. And the Sunni militias allied to the Turks and the formations of the Iraqi Kurdistan army refused to continue active operations in the Mosul direction.
On the other hand, the Shiite militia announced their intention to cut the road left for the ISIS to leave Mosul, while the Iranian media cover the storming of this city as if it were an operation of the greatest importance.
As for the Iraqi TV channels and newspapers, among them, surprisingly, the fruits of the overthrow of the dictatorship and the introduction of freedom of speech were evident. Journalists from a number of popular publications yearn for the former "common Iraqi identity" and sympathize with the people of their country who are dying in Mosul both from the bombs and shells of the coalition and from the hands of terrorists.
* A terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation.
The photo and video show only a small part of the frames of the destroyed equipment of the anti-ISIS coalition forces in Mosul, published in recent weeks. We are really talking about hundreds (!) Of burned, captured and destroyed units of military equipment.