Iraqi governmental troops liberate Hadar district from ISIS

Iraq’s Interior Ministry revealed the injury of one of its soldiers on Thursday, as ISIS extremis militant wearing explosive belt committed a suicide attack in Diyala governorate after he was besieged by the Iraqi troops, Meanwhile, Popular Mobilization Forces managed to liberate Hadar district in the southern area of Mousl from the extremist elements. The developments coincided with Trump’s decision to give Pentagon more flexibility on Iraq and Syria troops.

The White House is giving the Pentagon greater flexibility to determine the number of U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria, in another move by President Donald Trump to shift greater power to his military leaders. The decision will give Defense Secretary Jim Mattis the authority to send more forces into Syria, to assist U.S.-backed local troops as they move to retake Raqqa from the Islamic State group, which has used the city as a de facto capital.

It will also let him adjust the force numbers in Iraq, in the ongoing fight to oust IS from Mosul and stabilize it as the rebuilding begins. The Pentagon has already been making quiet, incremental additions to the troop levels in both countries in recent months, adding hundreds of Marines in Syria to provide artillery support, and sending more advisers into Iraq to work with units closer to the fight in Mosul. Those moves were done with White House approval, but without any formal adjustment to the longstanding troop caps that had been set by the Obama administration.

Dana White, chief spokesperson for the Pentagon, said Wednesday that Mattis has not made any changes yet to the current authorized force levels.Under the Obama White House, military leaders chafed about micromanagement that forced commanders to get approvals for routine tactical decisions and personnel moves, and provide justification for any troops sent into war zones. Commanders have argued that they should be able to determine troop deployments based on the military capabilities they believe are needed at any given time.

The new authority will provide greater transparency about the actual number of U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria after several years of public confusion about the accurate totals. Under the Obama-mandated caps, the U.S. was limited to 503 officially deployed troops in Syria, and 5,262 in Iraq. The Pentagon, however, has closer to 7,000 in Iraq, and hundreds more than the cap in Syria, but doesn't count them because they are on temporary duty or not counted under specific personnel rules.

On the military side, Pro-Iraqi government troops of al-Hashd al-Shaabi have declared liberating the cemetery in al-Hadar region as well as Tureitaa village in the north of the region, in western Mosul. “The forces freed the cemetery in Hadar,” the media service of the paramilitary troops said on Thursday.

“The troops also liberated Tureitaa village in the northeast of Hadar,” the service added. Earlier on Thursday, the troops advanced toward the center of Hadar to storm it. The troops announced on Wednesday recapturing three villages of Im Kreiz, Ghanem al-Awwad and Harraj in al-Hadar. The offensives, which entered its third day, resulted in retaking 17 villages and strategic areas as well as the archaeological area.

Federal Police Command has declared killing dozens of Islamic State militants, as the troops advanced by 300 meters toward the Grand Nuri mosque in Mosul’s Old City. “Our troops in the Old City launched limited attacks and approached by 300 meters toward Nuri mosque from Qadhib al-Ban side,” Lt.Gen. Shaker Jawdat, chief of Federal Police, said in statements on Thursday.

The Grand Nuri al-Kabir Mosque is the place at which Islamic State’s supreme leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi gave his famous sermon in 2014 declaring the establishment of the group’s rule in Iraq and neighboring Syria.

The forces, according to Jawdat, “killed dozens of terrorists including the leader abu Faisal al-Jabouri and destroyed eight booby-trapped motorbikes and three other vehicles in al-Farouq region.” He added that five passageways were combed in Bab al-Jedid to be used for evacuation of civilians.