Losses of American military personnel during the two-week-long operation to take Iraqi Mosul, occupied by militants of the ISIS terrorist organization (banned in the Russian Federation), amounted to 16 people killed and 27 wounded. This was reported to TASS by a military-diplomatic source in Moscow.
"During the first two weeks of the ground military operation to capture Mosul, 16 American servicemen were killed, another 27 received various injuries. Most of the deaths and injuries of servicemen are the result of land mine explosions, artillery and mortar attacks," the agency's interlocutor said.
According to him, there have been cases of deaths of servicemen as a result of poor coordination of the actions of aviation and special forces units. "Thus, two special forces soldiers were killed as a result of airstrikes on the suburbs of Mosul by American B-52H aircraft," the source said. He stressed that in the two weeks that have passed since the start of the operation, the coalition forces have not achieved any significant success in Mosul.
“The capture of Mosul is seen by the Democrats leaving the White House as a trump card in an election political game in which the victory of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton is at stake. Therefore, senators and influential politicians are forced to raise the stakes and lobby for decisions to intensify hostilities in Mosul, regardless of the heavy losses among American servicemen," he stressed.
PS. All this is the price of haste. Having relied on a quick breakthrough to Mosul and counting on the fact that it would be possible to agree with part of the top of the Caliphate, the Americans got something completely different from what they wanted - the group that broke through to the city from the east got stuck in heavy battles on the eastern outskirts of Mosul, the pace of operations to the north and south of the city began to seriously lag behind the planned ones, the elections have actually begun, and there is no talk of taking Mosul yet. All the same, it should be noted that that leak about secret negotiations between the United States and part of the top of the Caliphate played a big role in the development of the battle for Mosul .. At the exit, the Americans received, instead of an easy walk with a triumph in the final, the next edition of meat grinders near Ramadi and Fallujah. Moreover, you can imagine what the losses of the Iraqi army are, if the Americans have recently suffered the largest losses in Iraq for at least the last year. Of course, in terms of the scale of the operation, these are not very big losses, but for the Americans they are really big. Well, the Iraqis were not particularly considered before.
PS. By the way, if you remember, in Perestroika there was such a common myth, later refuted, that "the Red Army carried out offensives by some dates", in the style of "Kyiv wanted to be taken by November 7", etc. Well, here we see how the United States tried to carry out an operation for two weeks, with an eye to the fact that by November 8 the Caliphate would leave Mosul. Just a classic of "black mythology", but already in practice. In real life, all these attempts to stretch military operations (which always have a lot of pitfalls) for different dates on the calendar often end up not at all the way politicians plan.
Washington's plan to put the Iraqi city of Mosul on a silver platter just in time for the US presidential election began with serious slippage and heavy losses.
The largest military operation in recent years under the auspices of the Western coalition in Iraq began clearly not according to plan. It is already becoming clear with the help of which Washington planned to free the largest city of Iraq from the oppression of ISIS (a terrorist organization banned in Russia).
Firstly, military component. An unprecedented number of troops have been drawn to the city, for the most part these are the Iraqi military and Kurdish militias, who should bear the burden of the expected losses. But the American military has also been deployed to the city, which created the largest grouping of NATO troops in Iraq after the official US exodus from the country. The number of "white special forces", various special operations and intelligence forces, according to unconfirmed reports, is in the thousands, and this is not counting complete dominance in the sky.
Ankara does not lag behind, which simply goes ahead to participate in a victorious operation against ISIS.
The total number of formally Western coalition military participating in the liberation of Mosul, even according to the most conservative estimates, reaches 80 thousand bayonets, and according to immodest up to 130 thousand. And all this mass, including the American aircraft carrier group and the local air force, according to various estimates, fell on the ISIS group of 6-12 thousand, holding the city.
Secondly, immediately after the start of air strikes on the city, a rebellion began in Mosul. The Islamic police, led by Abu Usman, unexpectedly took the side of the stormers and for the first time the watch even achieved some success. What it was, Washington's financial injections or its generous promises, the desire to curry favor with the new owner, is not completely clear, but ISIS was stabbed in the back.
Third, according to media reports, a significant part of the most combat-ready terrorist units left the city, including the top of the organization. It is worth guessing about the direction of their withdrawal from the city, but the most promising is Syria, where all of them will still be needed to confront Russia and Damascus. Such an outcome can be considered the result of “undercover” flirtation by American “partners” with their own offspring.
Having piled on a weakened city with a mass of troops, in which only suicide bombers remained, who were shot in the back by former comrades-in-arms, Washington plans to conduct a “brilliant” (as opposed to Aleppo) military operation and give an extra bonus to Clinton before the elections.
However, from the first days, the American strategy near Mosul began to slip, the site reports. The uprising of Abu Usman failed, and combat-ready detachments of militants remained in the city, who were able to quickly suppress the rebels and regain control over the areas lost for several hours.
From the very first days, the grouping put together by the United States began to suffer heavy losses. Near the village of Bilavet alone, as a result of a suicide attack on an Iraqi military convoy, up to 70 servicemen were killed.
According to the testimony of local residents who left the city and intelligence data, there are quite a lot of motivated militants and suicide bombers left in Morsul who are ready to defend themselves to the end. Entire fortified areas and many long-term firing points have been created in the city, and one can only guess about the rest of the "surprises".
The first day of the assault can hardly be called successful, and these are far from the last major losses of the Western coalition, only the Iraqis and Kurds will traditionally bear them, and Washington will count the dividends.
On October 17, 2016, the operation of the Western coalition began to liberate the Iraqi city of Mosul from militants of the "Islamic State" (IS) banned in Russia. Since November 1, a direct assault on this city has been underway (so far only from the eastern direction). On November 6, the operation of the US allies in Syria "Wrath of the Euphrates" began. Its goal is to liberate the self-proclaimed capital of ISIS, Raqqa, from terrorists.
To seize Mosul, a motley group was created, which included Iraqi government troops (up to 29 thousand people), Kurdish self-defense forces - the Peshmerga (up to 4 thousand people), Shiite and Sunni militias (up to 10 thousand people). Special forces units of the US armed forces also take part in the hostilities.
The number of IS militants in Mosul is about 8,000 people, 2,000 of which are foreigners, but the Islamists are actively recruiting local residents loyal to the group to fight.
The attack on Mosul is developing along three main lines. In the north, Iraqi government troops are operating, the main grouping of which is located 12 km from the city. From the northeast, they have already captured the El-Zahra quarter and have penetrated 1 km into the city limits. The advancement of Iraqi units and subunits in this direction is 12 km from the beginning of the operation.
The offensive is more effective in the eastern direction. There, the Iraqi armed forces, together with the formations of the anti-terrorist service, the forces of the national federal police and the Peshmerga, captured the quarters of Hay-Aden, El-Khadr, El-Karama, Al-Quds and went deep into the city for 1.7 km. However, on November 8, IS units launched a counterattack, advanced 1 km and captured the El Intisar quarter, pushing the group of Iraqi troops out of the city. From the beginning of the operation, the advance of government troops from the east amounted to 15 km.
In the southern direction, the joint grouping of the armed forces and the federal police of Iraq advanced to a distance of 17 to 35 km. Now units and subunits of government troops are located 12-15 km from the city limits.
Part of the forces of government troops makes a detour of Mosul from the south-west in order to block the main road Mosul - Tell Afar, which is 9 km away.
In other words, the average rate of advance of the Iraqi military is less than 1 km per day. Such an offensive cannot be called otherwise than marking time.
The daily pace of the operation, which can be considered successful, is 15-20 km per day.
The actions of the Iraqi grouping of troops directly are supported by the US Special Operations Forces (SOF) (up to 500 people), units of the Turkish armed forces (230 people), and the Italian armed forces (470 people).
In the course of hostilities, the multinational coalition forces suffer significant losses.
Only in the US SOF during the operation, 20 people were killed and 32 were injured.
Allied aviation, led by the United States, actively supports the offensive, striking militant targets in Mosul and its environs. Since the beginning of the operation, more than 400 missile and air strikes have already been delivered. 1.5 thousand tons of aircraft weapons were dropped on Mosul.
Residential areas and urban infrastructure facilities are exposed to air strikes. As a result, civilians are dying. The bombing of a school in the south of Mosul and residential areas of the settlements of Khazna, Karakosh, Karakharab and Ash-Shura on October 21-23, 2016 can serve as an example of the non-selectivity of coalition air force strikes. During the strikes, more than 60 civilians were killed and at least 200 people were injured. In total, since the beginning of the operation to storm Mosul, more than a thousand civilians have died from the indiscriminate actions of the coalition air force.
Moreover, the operation plan did not initially provide for humanitarian pauses, and the corridors for the exit of residents and the evacuation of the wounded arose spontaneously.
According to the UN, about 48,000 people have left Mosul since the start of the operation. The total number of Iraqi refugees by mid-January 2017 may reach several hundred thousand people (up to a million displaced persons in the future). Residents of Mosul and its environs are sent mainly to refugee camps in Iraq, in the provinces of Ninewa and Anbar south of Mosul. However, even before the start of the operation (as of November 1), these camps were already more than 50% full.
A significant part of the population (mostly Sunnis and Turkomans) flees the fighting to Syria - in the provinces of Deir ez-Zor, Raqqa and Hasaka - and further to the Turkish province of Hatay. Ankara seeks to prevent refugees from entering its territory.
The humanitarian situation in and around the city continues to deteriorate rapidly. There are no doctors, medicines, food and basic necessities. The number of people in need of humanitarian assistance in the liberated territories exceeds 50,000 people. At the same time, international humanitarian organizations are not allowed into the operation area.
The situation develops in a similar way during the assault on Raqqa.
In this case, a motley grouping is also created. The Kurdish YPG self-defense units (up to 25,000 people), the US-controlled formations of the Sunni Arabs Raqqa Forces Brigade, the Liberation Brigade, the Raqqa Martyrs Brigade and the Free Raqqa Brigade, as well as the Turkish-controlled Raqqa Force Brigade, are involved in the operation. self-defense Turkoman "and" Battalion of martyrs Turkoman "(total - up to 15.5 thousand fighters).
130 Special Operations Forces personnel have been allocated from the US armed forces.
Special Forces members solve the tasks of directing Western coalition aviation to IS targets. They act as advisers to the command of the "Syrian Democratic Forces", and also coordinate the actions of the Arab, Turkoman and Kurdish detachments. In addition, the American command involves Kurdish self-defense units in combat operations.
The opposing ISIS grouping directly in Raqqa has about 2 thousand militants, 7 tanks and 12 armored vehicles, 30 automobile "carts" with large-caliber machine guns mounted on them, 4 multiple launch rocket systems, 15 field artillery guns and mortars, up to 10 anti-aircraft installations and about 7 launchers of anti-tank guided missiles. Up to 3,000 IS fighters operate on the outskirts of their capital.
As of November 14, the formations participating in the operation of the Syrian Democratic Forces are moving towards Raqqa along the main transport routes from the northern direction - Ain Isa - Raqqa and Beit al-Hisha - Raqqa.
The main task of the group is to block the city from the western, northern and eastern directions, thereby creating conditions for the subsequent assault on Raqqa and the cleansing of the city by the forces of Arab and Turkoman formations.
In recent clashes, as well as as a result of US Air Force strikes, IS militants lost 54 people killed and a hundred wounded. One artillery gun and six vehicles with large-caliber machine guns mounted on them were destroyed. SDF losses - 5 people killed and 15 wounded.
Such low losses of the parties are explained by the fact that only small settlements are still in the offensive zone of the SDF, which do not represent any strategic interest for the ISIS. These towns and villages were not turned into powerful strongholds. They did not build long-term defensive structures.
The advancing units and units of the SDS have advanced 15 km since the beginning of the operation, practically without serious fighting.
As they approached Raqqa, the resistance of the terrorists increased markedly, and the pace of the offensive decreased to 2 km per day.
Now the line of contact passes at a distance of 20 km from Raqqa. As a result of the active opposition of the ISIS formations, the Kurdish self-defense units were forced to suspend the offensive. Now they reflect enemy counterattacks.
In order to impede the further advance of the SDF units to Raqqa, IS militants in small mobile groups carry out surprise attacks on the enemy and quickly retreat to previously prepared positions.
As in the case of Mosul, the operation to take Raqqa does not provide for the introduction of humanitarian pauses and the creation of corridors for the evacuation of the population before the start of the assault. If the inhabitants themselves do not leave the city of Rakku by the beginning of the assault, then they will be considered as terrorists and their accomplices.
A similar practice was already used by the Americans in 2004 in Iraq during the capture of the Iraqi city of Fallujah. Then it led to significant casualties among the civilian population, held by the Islamists as a "human shield".
As the fighting approaches the city, an increase in the number of refugees is noted. More than 3,000 civilians have already left Raqqa (mainly the elderly, women and young children).
The contradictions between the Arab and Turkoman formations, on the one hand, and the Kurdish detachments, on the other, have a negative impact on the course of the operation to storm Raqqa. They are caused by mutual distrust and unwillingness to cede control over the liberated territories to each other.
The release from the terrorists of Raqqa by the deadline set by the US military command - mid-December 2016 - is unlikely.
Thus, in the operations to storm Mosul and Raqqa, the fighting took on a protracted character. The attackers are marking time. The number of civilian casualties is growing every day. The humanitarian situation in both cities is deteriorating rapidly. No significant military successes have yet been demonstrated by the US-led international coalition.
Biography:
Mikhail Mikhailovich Khodarenok is a military observer for Gazeta.Ru, a retired colonel.
Graduated from the Minsk Higher Engineering Anti-Aircraft Missile School (1976),
Military Command Academy of Air Defense (1986).
Commander of the S-75 anti-aircraft missile division (1980-1983).
Deputy commander of an anti-aircraft missile regiment (1986-1988).
Senior officer of the main headquarters of the Air Defense Forces (1988-1992).
Officer of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff (1992-2000).
Graduate of the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (1998).
Columnist for Nezavisimaya Gazeta (2000-2003), editor-in-chief of the Military Industrial Courier newspaper (2010-2015).
Captured tank and ammunition captured from the Islamic State militants. Reuters photo
It was assumed that the capture of Mosul would be a military-political gift to the US presidential candidate from the Democratic Party Hillary Clinton. But the blitzkrieg announced by the Pentagon did not work, and literally on the eve of voting day it became known that the Americans had suffered their first combat losses.
According to an unnamed military-diplomatic source in Moscow (most likely this is intelligence from the Russian Ministry of Defense), in the first weeks of the assault on Mosul, the Americans lost 16 people killed, 27 US Army soldiers were injured. Moreover, two commandos became victims of airstrikes carried out by B-52H strategic bombers on Islamist positions in the suburbs - that is, they came under so-called friendly fire. The rest laid down their lives as a result of artillery and mortar attacks or were blown up by land mines.
Even greater losses were suffered by the US allies in the coalition. Only the Kurds lost about 300 people killed during offensive operations and attacks by the Islamists on their rear. Irreplaceable losses of the Iraqi army, according to Baghdad, amounted to 90 soldiers. But independent sources have completely different statistics: hundreds of dead and up to a thousand wounded. In total, if we take at face value the information of the Al-Mak media resource, the losses of the anti-ISIS coalition already amount to 819 people killed.
But this data most likely does not yet take into account the latest American losses. And this, unfortunately, is not the final mournful report from the Iraqi front. By hook or by crook, the Americans managed to put together near Mosul, according to some sources, almost a 130,000-strong group - so the militants of the "Islamic State" banned in Russia have enough targets in abundance. While the Islamists defending the city have only 5-6 thousand bayonets. But in the two years that IS held Mosul, a multi-layered defense was prepared there, including an extensive system of underground passages (local military flavor!), Allowing you to maneuver forces and means and defend yourself from missile and bomb attacks. In addition, the militants are not only fanatics, but also real "people of war", many of whom were trained under the guidance of Western instructors (they themselves learned!) Or do not part with weapons from an early age. Including with anti-tank missile systems, which for some reason ended up with the Islamists at the right time and in the right place. But it is better to ask about this from the functionaries of the US Central Intelligence Agency, who in recent years have been actively arming and equipping opponents of "objectionable regimes" in the Middle East with everything necessary.
In general, the storming of Mosul, which was given special military and political importance in Washington, somehow went wrong from the very beginning. As a result, as some experts note, the coalition that the United States put together with such difficulty is bursting at the seams. And the first, perhaps, was the Kurdish peshmerga, who allegedly refused to advance on Mosul and are now intensively digging in in the occupied territories. The reason here is not only in heavy losses, but also in the fact that the Americans failed to establish the interaction of these already very heterogeneous forces. In addition, already the first battles showed that the advertised American military equipment is not as good as the Pentagon claimed. According to incoming reports, the coalition lost 97 armored vehicles, including 9 tanks, including 6 Abrams, 9 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles and about 50 armored vehicles.
There are no special details yet, however, information has been leaked that, unlike the Russian T-90s undergoing combat testing in the Middle East, the American Abrams showed low combat stability - in general, they burn with a bright flame from hits even from "ancient" anti-tank weapons . So the triumph of American weapons did not work out either. And there is evidence that the Iraqi army is going to use heavy flamethrower systems TOS-1A Solntsepek in the battle for Mosul - an agreement on their supply was signed by Iraqi Defense Minister Saadoun al-Duleimi with Moscow back in the summer of 2014. In addition, Russia was supposed to supply Baghdad with several battalions of Grad multiple launch rocket systems and Msta-B howitzers.
Well, if it somehow helps, after all, the fight against the terrorist international is a common cause. And Russia also has its own account with the Islamists. Only according to the official data of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, 20 Russian servicemen have already died in Syria, 17 of them in the line of military duty, 3 non-combat losses, 5 people were injured. But this is hardly an absolute indicator, since it is not advisable to open all the data. For example, back in February 2016, the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, said that there were losses among the special services agents trained at the Special Forces Center near Tsentoroy - they acted as part of an agent network in the rear of the Islamic State.
There are also strong doubts that only US Army personnel laid down their lives near Mosul. The fact is that in addition to the so-called white special forces, the Americans traditionally involve all kinds of private military companies (PMCs) in combat operations in different parts of the world. For example, according to the New York Times, in Afghanistan, for every 9,800 American soldiers, there are an average of three “private traders” (28,626 fighters in total). In Iraq, 7773 specialists from PMCs and 4087 soldiers of the US Army are involved. As a result, during the rule of Barack Obama, more mercenaries died in Iraq and Afghanistan than official military personnel - from January 1, 2009 to March 31, 2016, 1,540 employees of private military companies and 1,301 American soldiers died here. And in recent months, the difference in losses has only increased: 58 mercenaries from PMCs were killed in Afghanistan and Iraq, while the losses among the military personnel in both countries and in Syria amounted to 27 people.
Against the background of official American losses during Operation Iraqi Freedom - 4,423 dead and 31,941 wounded - the statistics so far are not particularly depressing. As you know, only computer wars do without victims. But everything will now depend on what course America will take after the elections. As former US Ambassador to Moscow Michael McFaul said, if Hillary Clinton wins the presidential election, a serious review of policy towards Russia will begin as early as Wednesday. And the question is hardly pertinent: in what direction? Suffice it to recall that Hillary Clinton is an ardent supporter of the introduction of no-fly zones for the aviation of Bashar al-Assad and the Russian Aerospace Forces, and this is already a conflict that goes beyond Syria proper ... In the meantime, says McFaul, the White House is determined inflict a final defeat on the "Islamic State" by the next "red day" of the American calendar - by January 21, 2017, when the inauguration of the new US president is scheduled. And this means that Americans will still need plastic bags.
Mosul, December 8th. The advance of the Western coalition forces in Mosul has stalled, moreover, ISIS terrorists managed to recapture several areas in the eastern part of the city that were previously captured by coalition forces, a correspondent of the Federal News Agency (FAN) reports from the scene.
A FAN source managed to take photos and videos of US regular army units fighting near Mosul, while earlier the Pentagon denied the participation of US military personnel in the hostilities.
The photo of the FAN correspondent caught employees of the 101st Air Assault Division "Screaming Eagles", as well as equipment: US-made Oshkoch M 1070 tractors carrying Abrams M1 tanks.
Soldiers and officers of the American units were armed with M4 A1 automatic assault rifles, as well as M240V machine guns.
Americans do not communicate with journalists, they live apart, they do not allow themselves to be filmed, threatening journalists with reprisals. Therefore, the FAN correspondent had to take these photos and videos covertly.
“Even at their own base, the Americans move in full combat gear, in helmets and with weapons, because they are afraid of being stabbed in the back. The Iraqis, by the way, dislike their allies because they behave in a businesslike manner in the Middle East, allegedly doing a favor to this godforsaken land. On the land, which, by the way, no one called them to, ”says a FAN source.
The losses of the Americans are carefully concealed, however, the Iraqi servicemen, with whom the source of the FAN managed to talk, report that in the first two weeks of the ground operation alone, more than two dozen "American eagles" were killed, more than fifty were injured.
“The Americans died during the explosion on land mines, during artillery and mortar attacks, as well as from friendly fire. In similar situations, our soldiers, Iraqis, also died, but we do not hide our losses,” the soldier said.
It should be noted that earlier it was reported that two American servicemen were killed as a result of air strikes on the suburbs of Mosul by American B-52H bombers.
The operation to take Mosul has been going on for two months now, while under the control of the security forces at the moment there is no more than 30% of Mosul - this is the east and northeast of the city.
The Iraqi Federal Police, advancing on Mosul from the south, barely approached the outskirts of the city. From the west, the Shiite units of the people's militia "Hashd Ash-Shaabi" are not allowed to enter the allies - because of political and confessional contradictions. While the Shiite detachments blocked the town of Tel Afar, blocked the road to the Syrian Raqqa and stopped at a decent distance from Mosul.
The only unit that entered the city is the so-called "Golden Division" or "Division of the Dead". The FAN reporter was able to drive with these fighters in one of the Hummers through the coalition-occupied suburbs of Mosul and talk to the soldiers.
These elite Iraqi counter-terror units, trained by US military experts, were supposed to terrify the terrorists. In fact, progress is very slow, and on the road to Mosul you can see entire cemeteries of wrecked Hummers.
The Americans work in isolation from all coalition forces, performing special tasks, but also cannot boast of visible results. A FAN source says that American losses over the past two months have already exceeded one hundred out of 600 fighting in and around the city. In total, 12.5 thousand Americans are allegedly fighting in the region. It is not yet possible to confirm this information.
In general, during the war in Iraq, the military losses of the coalition forces amounted to more than 4.8 thousand people. 4,486 thousand US military personnel, 179 British military personnel, 139 military personnel from 21 countries of the world were killed.
Reports of casualties among Iraqis vary. The American media give different numbers of Iraq's total losses in the war: from 100,000 to 300,000 people, including civilians. At the same time, according to WHO data, from 150,000 to 223,000 Iraqis fell victim to the war between 2003 and 2006 alone.
