Iraqi security forces are making progress every day against the Islamic State in west Mosul, with the defeat of the enemy inevitable, the commander of coalition ground forces told reporters today.

“The fight to liberate Mosul from ISIS brutality has been hard-fought and long” Army Maj. Gen. Joseph M. Martin, commander of Operation Inherent Resolve’s Combined Joint Forces Land Component Command, said in a videoconference from Baghdad.

He added:

“The Iraqi forces have taken the fight to the enemy and sacrificed their blood for the people of Iraq. I’m honoured to serve by their side in this endeavour. We will continue to support them until all the Iraqis are liberated and the country is free to choose its own future.

The military defeat of ISIS in Iraq is inevitable, and we will help the Iraqis achieve that.”

An Air Force B-52 Stratofortress bomber departs after receiving fuel from a KC-135 Stratotanker during a flight to support Operation Inherent Resolve, the coalition effort to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, June 9, 2017. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Michael Battles
A US Air Force B-52 Stratofortress bomber departs after receiving fuel from a KC-135 Stratotanker during a flight to support Operation Inherent Resolve, the coalition effort to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, June 9, 2017. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Michael Battles

According to a press release:

“The enemy is encircled and running out of options, he said. Meanwhile, he told reporters, the coalition continues to support the Iraqi forces by providing joint coalition fires. Progress has been steady, but slow at times.”

George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison

3 COMMENTS

  1. I worry for the fall out once this conflict ends. They will not be fully defeated and once thier land is gone, I worry their next step would be terrorist attacks. Main land Europe and the UK are relatively easy targets.

      • Why would he be being sarcastic? He’s absolutely right. Many of the commentators after the two most recent UK terror attacks expressed exactly the same concerns. The problem is that IS has aspired to creating two caliphates, a physical one in the Middle East and a virtual one on the internet (which will to some extent be increasingly underpinned by a diaspora of fighters deserting the physical wanna-be caliphate as it is dismantled by force). The problem is that we can drop bombs on the physical wanna-be caliphate but how do we tackle the virtual one?

        I am pretty sure that Steve is not saying the fight against the physical wanna-be caliphate is a bad thing, rather he seems to be thinking like I hope the Western military commanders and security officials are thinking, namely that if IS gets bombed into oblivion that is the end of a battle and not the end of the war. The war will then move on to its next and possibly even more challenging phase. Much will have been accomplished in the first phase however when one considers the number of good and decent citizens who will have been liberated from the tyranny and fear of being unlucky enough to have been living in an IS-controlled area through no fault of their own.

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