On the ground in Mosul: The face of a new Iraqi military, forged in war
In the battle for Mosul, the Iraqi Army has deployed a variety of its best units, including the 9th Armored Division, the black-clad Special Operations Forces and the Federal Police.
By SETH J. FRANTZMANUpdated: APRIL 5, 2017 12:15Destruction in Mosul , Iraq amid the fight against ISIS in April 2017 (SETH J. FRANTZMAN)
WEST MOSUL – Gunfire sounds in the background. In an adjacent alleyway, Islamic State snipers keep watch for movement. On the roof above our heads the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) are pouring fire into buildings occupied by the terrorists.Five members of the Iraqi Federal Police sit on chairs and boxes in a street, sheltered from the battle. One of their colleagues is busy trying to pry open a box of .50 caliber ammo, as another man feeds a belt of bullets into the squad’s machine gun. It’s the sixth month of the battle to re-take Mosul and coming up on the third anniversary of Iraq’s war against ISIS.In the battle for Mosul, the Iraqi Army has deployed a variety of its best units, including the 9th Armored Division, the black-clad Special Operations Forces and the Federal Police.The name may conjure up traffic stops and men rescuing kittens from trees, but in the Iraqi context “federal police” is a mechanized infantry unit: thousands of men in dark blue camouflage with Humvees and machine guns. Accompanying them is another elite unit called the ERD, or Emergency Response Division.Together they have done the heavy lifting since January, when the operation to liberate West Mosul began. Streetby- street they have fought to dislodge what remains of the “caliphate.” There are fewer than 1,000 ISIS fighters left, according to the Iraqis and their American-led coalition allies. But these are the hard core – many of them foreign fighters, such as the Chechen snipers who have been dealing death on this front for months.ISIS has burrowed into the Old City of Mosul, into buildings that date back hundreds of years. Here they are making one of their last stands around the Nuri Mosque, where Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared his so-called caliphate in 2014.They’ll fight to the death in the basement of the mosque, an Iraqi officer thinks.Lt.-Col. John Hawbaker – commander of a combat team of the 82nd Airborne Division, which is advising and assisting the Iraqi forces – served in Iraq during the surge of 2005-2006, when America was fighting the Iraqi insurgency. He says the contrast today is extraordinary.Ten years ago the Iraqi Army was more limited than today.“The Federal Police are extremely professional and disciplined and capable, and that’s one of the biggest differences from 10 years ago,” he declares. The US-led coalition that is helping to defeat ISIS stresses that the Iraqis are fully in charge of the operation and they are the ones leading it.
Jared Kushner and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford were in Baghdad on Monday to illustrate the high priority the US puts on Iraq’s efforts to crush ISIS.That’s obvious on the ground. Although the coalition provides artillery and air support, there is no visible presence of coalition forces at the front. It is Iraqis carrying the fight.The older Iraqi officers have been fighting ISIS in Fallujah, Ramadi and other cities for the last two years. They say the battle for Mosul is difficult, because ISIS cannot retreat here and has to fight to the last man. But they’ve seen more serious battles in 2015 when ISIS was stronger.Their men have been forged in this war. As we crawled through holes smashed in the walls of houses to make our way to the roof of one position, soldiers were in each room. One team was looking out for snipers, another preparing RPGs, and others catching a bit of rest on cots. On the roof, soldiers are unlimbering an SPG-9, a kind of long-barreled cannon on a tripod that fires RPGs through a small hole cut in the wall.“The ISF have victory in hand – it is inevitable; they know it and ISIS knows it.Everyone can see and knows they will win,” says Hawbaker.ISIS was like a shot in the arm for Baghdad, it provided the existential threat that has led to the creation of an increasingly professional, stronger army that is more self-assured than it was before 2014. The next years will reveal if Iraq can build on that success.