US progress against IS in Shaddadi critical to retake Mosul- Pentagon
Date
2/29/2016 6:25:22 PM
(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) WASHINGTON Feb 29 (KUNA) -- Following the recapture of Shaddadi in northeastern Syria from the so-called Islamic State (IS) group last week the Pentagon said Monday it is now gearing up for a reclamation of Mosul in Iraq.Shaddadi was "a critical node for IS training and logistics as well as for its oil enterprise" US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter told reporters."I believe we will learn a great deal more about IS's criminal networks its criminal enterprise and what it does to sustain them" he added."By encircling and taking this town we are also working to sever the last major artery between Raqqa and Mosul an operation critical to dissecting IS's parent tumor into two parts in Iraq and Syria. At the same time we're bombing IS's banks as well as oil wells they've taken over or coerced others into operating on their behalf. We're also using cyber tools to disrupt IS's ability to operate and communicate over the virtual battlefield" Carter explained.Iraqi forces will be in the lead in Mosul he said and US forces "will be enabling them" he said. "We expect it to be like Ramadi." Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford acknowledged the scale of the planned operation in Mosul however it would be "much bigger" than in Ramadi."We've worked with the Iraqis very closely to take a look at the lessons learned and there's a couple of things we want to do. One is we want to position ourselves to most effectively support combined arms for the Iraqis as they conduct operations and the second piece is we want to make sure that we have uninterrupted flow of logistic support" he said.Mosul is being isolated "as we speak ... so it is not something that will happen in the deep deep future" he added. (end) ys.rk
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