Jabar Yawar: Peshmerga join the mission to retake Mosul

[Anthea]

NRT

Peshmerga to join the mission to retake Mosul, Jabar Yawar says

The Secretary-General of the Peshmerga announced on Sunday (Feb. 28) that Kurdish forces will join the mission to liberate Mosul.

Lieutenant General Jabar Yawar said the Peshmerga will participate in the offensive to take back Mosul from the Islamic State (IS). Mosul has been an IS stronghold since militants overran the city in June 2014.

Yawar added that a number of Iraqi forces had arrived and were based near the city of Makhmour which is about 70 kilometers (45 miles) southeast of Mosul.

Yawar explained, “We should have cooperation before beginning the offensive and we must hold meetings in order to make plans for establishing control over the city.” He added, “We have to consider how the city will be managed after regaining it and how to protect its security.”

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has stated in a number of conferences that 2016 will be the year the Islamic State (IS) is defeated in Iraq. In the last few weeks, some Iraqi forces have gathered near Makhmour along with approximately 400 U.S. trainers and advisors.

IS has held Iraq’s second largest city largely unopposed, except for airstrikes, for over 18 months as the country’s security forces battled the extremists in other areas.

The government has designated Mosul as the next target for Iraq's armed forces after they retook the western city of Ramadi in December, the first major success of the U.S.-trained force that initially fled in the face of Islamic State's advance.

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