Set for a Siege: Battle for Iraq’s Mosul to Start Soon, US General Reveals

Despite the fact that Daesh (also known as ISIS/Islamic state) is losing its grip on territories it seized in Iraq in 2014, the terrorist group still controls the city of Mosul, an extremist stronghold that government forces, backed by American troops, plan to retake by the end of this year.

Over the past year, Daesh has been swept from several cities in northern and western Iraq, including Tikrit, Sinjar and Ramadi, as well as Fallujah.

In July, Iraqi forces cleared the Qayyarah airbase, some 60 kilometers from Mosul, preparing for a major offensive on the city, which the violent extremist group declared the Iraqi capital of its self-proclaimed caliphate in 2014.

Now, preparations for the retaking of Mosul are on full display. US forces have set up a logistics center south of the city and the United Nations is bracing for a complicated humanitarian mission.

Newly-appointed commander of the US-led anti-Daesh campaign, Gen. Stephen Townsend, told the Wall Street Journal that the offensive against Daesh could begin as early as October.

Following that report, Air Force Colonel John Dorrian, a spokesman for US forces in Iraq, refused to confirm the dateline at a Department of Defense briefing, saying only that “if the desire is to try to get it done around the end of the year, we're going to have to start soon."

At least 3,000 Daesh fighters are said to remain in the city, of which a third is “the hardest-core” group, according to Gen. Townsend. He adds that retaking Mosul will be difficult to achieve quickly.

“We’re preparing for a hard fight, a long, difficult fight” Townsend said on Wednesday. “Really, it’s a siege I’m talking about here.”

Major General Najm al-Jabouri, the Mosul operation commander for Iraqi forces, claimed, however, that it would be “easy” to take the city by the year end. He said that many Daesh commanders have been recently killed in coalition airstrikes, while others have fled to Syria.

Al-Jabouri added that government forces are ready to clear the west of Iraq from Daesh prior to the beginning of 2017.

"We will go to Mosul, they will go to Tel Afar. We will go to Tel Afar, they will go to Baaj," Al-Jabouri said. "We will go to Baaj, maybe. It depends on the situation in Syria. They can get to Syria but the situation there is not like before. It is not a safe haven for them now."

Gen. Townsend added that only Iraqi “army and police” would enter Mosul, excluding Shiite and Kurdish groups involved in the offensive. The move is aimed at avoiding “sectarian” violence between rival groups pursuing different goals.

The UN has expressed concern that the offensive will result in a massive humanitarian crisis that the government is not prepared for. Under some assessments, up to a million people could flee the city during the offensive, but there are said to be resources to accept only 450,000.

"If there is mass displacement, there could be shantytowns in the disputed border areas because the plan for camps doesn't accommodate them all," said Tom Robinson, director of the Rise Foundation, in analyzing Iraq's humanitarian crisis.