Iraqis ‘pausing’ Mosul campaign to consolidate gains

Iraqi forces are halting their advance on the Daesh group’s last urban stronghold of Mosul in order to consolidate gains before striking the fighters, a US military official said Friday.
“They are pausing and repositioning, refitting and doing some back clearing” in areas where the Iraqi forces have already made some headway, Col. John Dorrian, a spokesman for the US-led coalition, told Pentagon reporters via videoconference. “We think it will just be a couple of days and then we are back on the march toward Mosul. That’s their game plan and we believe they will stick to it.”
Dorrian said the pause was rather generalized, explaining that Iraqi forces were adjusting to Daesh tactics and moves thus far.
In the meantime the coalition is still conducting air strikes, including targeting tunnels the fighters use to assault Iraqi troops, as well as Daesh command centers, Dorrian added.
He said that since the Mosul offensive began last week, the coalition has dropped nearly 2,500 bombs, missiles, shells and guided rockets.
Meanwhile, Iraqi officials said Saturday that the security forces foiled an attack by Daesh on the city of Ramadi, capital of Anbar.
The reported thwarted attack led to 11 arrests and comes after a string of diversionary attacks by the extremists since the start two weeks ago of a massive offensive against Daesh bastion Mosul.
Iraqi forces “arrested 11 Daesh members who were planning to attack the city” from the suburb of Al-Tash, on the southern edge of Ramadi, said Captain Ahmed Al-Dulaimi of the Anbar police.
Anbar provincial council member Raja Al-Issawi said the 11, arrested on Friday, had confessed to planning an attack on the city.

Source: Arab News