Alwaght- The Iraqi forces’ operation to liberate Mosul from ISIS has entered its second week, with the participating forces making sweeping victories over the terrorist group that has been taking the northern Iraqi city for over two years.
Alwaght has conducted an interview with the official spokesman of Iraq’s Public Mobilization Forces (PMF) Abu Jaafar al-Assadi, covering an array of topics including the Mosul battle and its developments, the role of PMF, the Turkish insistence to join the fight, the US attempts to justify the Turkish forces' presence in northern Iraq, and the vision for post-ISIS Iraq agreed upon by Sayyed Muqtada al-Sadr and the PMF’s leaders.
Alwaght: What is the Mosul battle’s outlook? What about its conclusion?
Al-Assadi: We are on the second week of Mosul liberation operation. The operation was launched from the eastern and southern fronts, and in upcoming days the third front will be launched from the west that continues to Tal Afar.
Concerning the eastern front, the progress of the military units is going on very well, as they do in the southern front where on the day 8 the armed forces liberated over 50 villages as well as Al-Hamdaniya District. The Iraqi flag was risen on Al-Qaem Maqamiya District. The armed forces also freed Bartala region and encircled Bashiqa. They also launched assault on Tall Kayf. All these achievements were made within the first 8 days. The advances are good in general and are going as planned for them.
ISIS used the techniques that it always uses when it feels the danger including using suicide trucks as well as suicide bombers who use explosive belts and roadside mines. So, up to now 127 suicide trucks driven by the suiciders were blown off. Over 600 ISIS fighters were killed in the eastern and southern fronts. The units are now about 30 kilometers, or even less, away from the center of Mosul from the southern front, and about 10 kilometers from the eastern and northeastern fronts. If the progress of the armed units continues and the terrorist defenses keep falling this fast, we expect that the battle will not take a long time. Some expectations put it at 4 to 6 months, but the outlook is still unclear concerning the time for end of the battle because the faster and more important front which is the western front has not been launched yet. It belongs to the PMF. The Western front stretches around an area of 12,000 or 14,000 square kilometers from Qayyarah in southern Mosul to Tal Afar in north of the city.
Alwaght: What is the role of the PMF in the fresh achievements in particular and Mosul battle in general?
Al-Assadi: After breaking the operation into three fronts, the PMF’s mission was to provide support in the southern front to the tribal mobilization forces and the local PMF that, in turn, are offering backing to units from the federal police and the army. In the southeastern front there are mobilization forces from a set of Iraq minorities including the Christians, Shabaks, Yazidis, and Turkmens that are backing the assaulting Iraqi forces. But the key front of the PMF is the western front that has not been launched yet, and will be started in the forthcoming days as planned. It will start from Qayyarah in south to Tal Afar in north and also from Mosul’s neighboring areas in east to the Iraqi-Syrian borders in north in an area of 12,000 to 14,000 square kilometers that stands as a major supply line of the terrorist group from Syria’s Raqqa to Iraq’s Mosul. These are important ISIS-controlled areas stretching from Al-Hadar village to Tal Afar that will be liberated soon as the operation in western front starts.
Alwaght: you took part in a joint press conference with Sayyed Muqtada al-Sadr and a member of PMF’s commanders to state assurances about post-ISIS time. What are these assurances and what is the vision that was agreed upon for the future of Iraq following ISIS defeat?
Al-Assadi: The sacrifices, successes, and liberations made by the Iraqis, the PMF, and other armed forces of the country urge us to protect unity of Iraq and the unity of all of the Iraqi cities and also foil all of the foreign plots. So, our meeting’s main point was about the unity of Iraq and its sovereignty over all of its cities and regions. Furthermore, we agreed to support the army and the PMF and on the need for the latter to be under control of the government and the law. We emphasized the PMF’s links to the official armed forces and its being under control of the commander-in-chief. We also agreed to take some steps that will help regulate the PMF’s administrative and organizational performance and consider it part of the official Iraqi armed forces that will be the main security body that will protect Iraq’s unity and security in the future.
Alwaght: Ankara has reportedly asked for a US mediation to urge Iraqi government to let Turkish forces take part in Mosul Operation that was rejected by Baghdad. Have Turkish feeling of danger and the pressures on their forces that are present on the Iraqi soil pushed Ankara to take this choice after official rejection by Iraq and considering the Turkish army unis hostile forces?
Al-Assadi: First, the US is supposed to press the Turkey to pull its forces out of Iraq and not to put strains on Iraq to legitimize this presence on the Iraqi soil. This is an illegal presence and a violation of the Iraqi sovereignty and the international law, and also is a disrespect to the principles of neighborhood. Furthermore, Iraq in the past signed deals with the American side according to the security pact and others that obligate the Americans to stand by Iraq to press Turkey to withdraw its forces out of the Iraqi territories. But the US acted just against this as it tried to press the Iraqi government to legalize presence of the Turkish forces. But the government refused and said it would not to allow the Turkish forces to take part in any operation for liberation of Mosul nor would it to allow them even stay in the Iraqi territories. So, the demand by Ankara is totally rejected by the official Iraqi sides, as it is so by the Iraqi people, and the religious, cultural, and social circles.
Alwaght: Do Ankara’s claims about Lausanne Treaty and Turkey’s rights over Mosul lay bare the genuine goals behind the Turkish hostility and its efforts to enter Iraq militarily? Do they reveal what was pointed to by Hezbollah's Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah about the Turkish planning for claiming ownership of Syria’s Aleppo after Mosul?
Al-Assadi: Legally, Lausanne Treaty has no value because it was signed between the British side that was occupying Iraq and the Turks and not between an independent Iraqi government and Turkey. This legally-invalid treaty that expired after the end of British occupation of Iraq in 1958 is not binding. Moreover, we should know that these remarks disclose the real Turkish intentions of Ankara through intervention on the one hand under the excuse of old and expired treaties and the other hand under the excuse of threats and the danger coming from the terrorist groups existing on the Iraqi-Turkish borders. These threats, Ankara argues, push Turkey to establish safe zones on its borders and take part in US-led anti-ISIS international military coalition in Iraq. As a result, Turkey makes these claims to pave the way for its presence in Iraq’s Kurdistan region and Nineveh province or close to them to actualize agendas that are now clear to all.
If Turkey succeeds in its plans in Iraq, it will move with these plans to Syria especially that now its forces are operating under Operation Euphrates Shield in northern Syria under the excuse of fighting terrorism and protecting its borders against the terrorist groups that it claims are attacking them. Therefore, Sayyed Nasrallah’s reference and his cautions against this danger is important and the relevant (Syrian and Iraqi) sides must watch closely the loopholes and the Turkish possible plans in Syria and Iraq.
