The Islamic State (ISIS) unleashed a series of complex attacks against advancing coalition forces in Mosul this weekend. The attacks combined car bombs, mortar fire, and snipers in order to drive back what reports variously described as “Iraqi special forces” and Kurdish peshmerga. The Iraqi units were driven back for a while, but managed to retake the urban areas through a combination of artillery fires and American-backed air support. Other forces, clearly Kurdish, moved on outlying villages.
While the coalition of Iranian-led Shia militias, official Iraqi army units — some flying Shia flags — and Kurdish irregulars seems to be making progress overall, the fight has been tougher than predicted. ISIS’s leadership has been firm so far in holding its troops to Mosul, committing beheadings and other terroristic violence in order to minimize its risks of either the flight of its own soldiers, or an uprising by those natives to the city who resent ISIS’s control. – READ MORE
