Iraq denies US claim of ‘pause’ in Mosul operations

Iraq has denied a recent claim made by the US-led coalition supposedly targeting Daesh in the Arab country that there was going to be a “pause” in Iraqi military operations to liberate the northern city of Mosul.

Coalition spokesman Colonel John Dorian had alleged on Saturday that the suspension was aimed at helping the forces to “regroup.”

“We believe that [regrouping] will take two days before continuing the advance towards Mosul,” he had said in Baghdad.

Later in the day, however, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said via the country’s al-Iraqiya television network that, “Since the beginning of the operation to date, Iraqi forces have liberated a large number of districts, villages, and towns [in Nineveh Province, of which Mosul is the capital], and this trend is to continue as scheduled.”

The operation, he said, would last until the liberation of the province in its entirety.

The Iraqi premier said obstructive efforts by infiltrators and ill-wishers would not hamper the efforts to liberate Mosul.

Lieutenant General Abdul Wahhab al-Saadi and General Abdul Ghani al-Assadi, commanders with Iraq’s elite counter-terror force, have also rejected the remarks by the US-led coalition spokesman.

Together with dozens of its allies, the coalition has been pounding what it says are the positions of the Takfiri terrorist group of Daesh since 2014. It is not clear if the strikes have done anything to dislodge the terrorists, however.

Reports have, meanwhile, pointed to alleged instances of obstruction or non-cooperation by the US-led coalition in the operations for Mosul, whose potential liberation would mean a severe blow to Daesh in Iraq.