Mediaboss Marketing

Iraqi forces haveopened exit routes for hundreds of people to flee the Old City of Mosulwith the United Nations voicing alarm at the rising civilian death toll and the unimaginablerisks trapped residents face.

Troops are battlingto retake the Old City district from Isisfighters mounting a last stand in the final major city they hold in the country.

Urban warfare units have been channelling their onslaught along two perpendicular streets that converge in the heart of the Old City, aiming to isolate the jihadist insurgents in four pockets.

The week-old battle in the Old City is turning into the deadliest of the eight-month US-backed campaign to take back the northern city, which fell to Isis in June 2014.

I saw ayoung girl with facial injuries walking dazed and shocked across the frontline out of heavily-populated district with a group of neighbours. All her family was killed when their house collapsed, they said.

The United Nations has said as many as 12 civilians were killed and hundreds injured in fightingon Friday.

Fighting is very intense in the Old City and civilians are at extreme, almost unimaginable risk. There are reports that thousands, maybe even tens of thousands, of people are being held as human shields [by Isis],Lise Grande, the UNhumanitarian coordinator in Iraq, said in a statement. Hundreds of civilians, including children, are being shot.

Iraqi authorities are hoping to declare victory in the northern Iraqi city in the Muslim Eid holiday, which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, during the next few days.

Helicopter gunships were assisting the ground thrust, firing at insurgent emplacements in the Old City.The government advance was carving out escape corridors for civilians marooned behind Isis lines.

There was a steady trickle of fleeing families on Saturday, some with injured and malnourished children. My baby only had bread and water for the past eight days, one mother said.

At least 100 civilians reached the safety of a government-held area west of the Old City in one 20-minute period, tired, scared and hungry. Soldiers gave them food and water.

More than 100,000 civilians, of whom half are believed to be children, remain trapped in the crumbling old houses of the Old City, with little food, water or medical treatment.

Related video: Mosul residents on Isis blowing up Grand al-Nuri Mosque

The urban-warfare forces were leading the campaign to clear the Sunni Islamist militants from the maze of Old City alleyways, moving on foot house-to-house in locations too cramped for the use of armoured combat vehicles.

A US-led international coalition is providing ground and air support in the eight-month-old campaign to seize Mosul, the largest city Isiscame to control in a shock offensive in Iraq and neighbouring Syria three years ago.

Iraqi government offensives supported by the coalition have wrested back several important urban centres in the countrys west and north from Isis over the past 18 months.

Military analysts said Baghdads campaign to recover Mosul gathered pace after the jihadi group blew up the 850-year-old al-Nuri mosque with its famous leaning minaret on Wednesday.

The mosques destruction, while condemned by Iraqi and UNauthorities as another cultural crime by the jihadists, gave troops more freedom to press their onslaught as they no longer had to worry about damaging the ancient site.

It was from the mosque that Isisleader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi announced himself to the world for the first time as the caliph, or ruler of all Muslims, in July 2014. Mosuls population at the time was more than twomillion.

Baghdadi fled into the desert expanse extending across Iraq and Syria in the early phase of the Mosul offensive, leaving the fighting there to local Isiscommanders, according to USand Iraqi officials. Recent Russian reports that he was killed have not been confirmed by the coalition or Iraqi authorities.

The Iraqi government once hoped to take Mosul by the end of 2016, but the campaign dragged on as Isis reinforced positions in inner-city neighbourhoods of the citys western half, carried out suicide car and motorbike bomb attacks, laid booby traps and kept up barrages of sniper and mortar fire.

By Saturday, the area still under Isiscontrol was less than twosquare kilometres (0.77 sq miles),skirting the western bank of the Tigris River that bisects Mosul.

Isisretaliated for government advances on Friday evening with a triple bombing in a neighbourhood in eastern Mosul, which Baghdads forces recaptured in January. The attack was carried out by three people who detonated explosive belts, killing five, including three policemen, and wounding 19, according to a military statement on Saturday.

The fall of Mosul would mark the end of the Iraqi half of the so-called-Caliphateas a quasi-state structure, but Isiswould still hold sizeable, mainly rural and small-town tracts of both Iraq and Syria.

In eastern Syria, The de facto Isis capital, Raqqa, is now nearly encircled by a US-backed Kurdish-led coalition.

Reuters

Read this article:
Iraq forces help hundreds of civilians escape Isis-held Mosul as UN warns of 'unimaginable' risk to life - The Independent

The Jerusalem Post

5 reasons why Nasrallah's threat to use Iraq and Iran fighters against Israel is alarming The Jerusalem Post In recent years, Iran has been accused of attempting to create a route to the sea via Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. This would link Tehran with its allies in Baghdad, Damascus and Beirut. These allies include the Iraqi based Shi'ite militias called the ... Future Israel War Could Draw Iran, Iraq FightersFinancial Tribune all 9 news articles »

Go here to see the original:
5 reasons why Nasrallah's threat to use Iraq and Iran fighters against Israel is alarming - The Jerusalem Post

Canada is not known, at least not in popular culture, for its military might. Fewer than 100,000 active personnel serve in the countrys armed forces, whose size and strength have been mocked over the years by American and Canadian commentators alike. The United States, by comparison, has about half a million active soldiers in the Army alone, and hundreds of thousands more across the other branches.

But dont let those numbers fool you.

Despite its small size, Canada is known for producing well-trained, highly skilled soldiers, who have long fought alongside American and British counterparts in major world conflicts, including the current fight against Islamic State militants.

In particular, Canada boasts some of the best snipers of any military, and the world may very well have gotten another reminder of that last week.

On Thursday, the countrys military said that a Canadian Special Operations sniper had shot an Islamic State fighter in Iraq from more than 2 miles away, purportedly breaking a world record for the longest confirmed kill shot in history, according to the Globe and Mail.

An unidentified sniper from the elite Joint Task Force 2 made the shot from a distance of 3,540 meters using a U.S.-made McMillan Tac-50 rifle, according to the Globe and Mail. The newspaper cited anonymous military sources saying that the fatal shot, made from a high-rise in Iraq, was independently verified by video and other data.

If so, the Canadian snipers shot shatters the previous world record, held by a British soldier, by a staggering 1,065 meters.

It also fits a long tradition of expert marksmanship among Canadian soldiers.

During World War I, Canadian snipers were celebrated for their deadly accuracy. The late Francis Pegahmagabow, a First Nations sniper from Ontario, was credited with 378 kills.

Outdoorsmanship played a big role in how the Canadian military selected its snipers; the country had an abundance of farmers, hunters and trappers.

More here:
Canadian sniper in Iraq makes fatal shot from 2 miles - Press Herald

The continuing conflict in Iraq has brought destruction to many areas of the country. It also has had an extreme cost for families and children, as well.

The United Nations Childrens Fund, or UNICEF, says fighting has displaced more than 1.5 million children in the last three years.

Their stories are hard to hear.

Zamin Makhool is 28 years old. Last December, she lost two of her children in an airstrike in her neighborhood. An explosive struck her home, leaving it a pile of wreckage. It left a hole three meters deep.

Her four-year-old son and nine-month-old daughter died. Her son died while playing with his spinning top toy, she says. Her baby daughter was crushed in the collapsed house.

The attack took place at a time when Islamic State militants controlled the neighborhood.

Since 2014, UNICEF says more than 1,000 children have been killed in Iraq. The organization says Islamic State militants claimed territory -- including Mosul and other cities -- during that period.

Peter Hawkins is a UNICEF representative in Iraq. He said in a statement that, Across Iraq, children continue to witness sheer horror and unimaginable violence.

Families risk lives when fleeing militant controlled areas

The fighting continues in Mosuls Old City, the last place in Mosul where Islamic State still holds power.

Several families recently arrived at a field hospital near the Old City neighborhood to seek treatment.

One mother brought her baby, Saja, who is one year old. She told the doctors that the child had not been fed enough for months. The doctors tried to inject nutrients into her bloodstream with a needle.

Even the families of militants are trying to flee the Old City now, said the childs mother. Its too dangerous.

One day before she came to the hospital, she said, militants had heard that her family was planning to run away. They shot her husband in their house. She then took her children and fled the neighborhood.

UNICEF and fleeing civilians say militants are killing parents and children. They also are preventing families from fleeing and punishing ones that do.

Mortars, airstrikes and so-called improvised explosive devices are harming children and adults. But starvation and disease are greater threats to children.

Poor conditions exist at camps for displaced

Conditions for those displaced by conflict are extremely difficult. Families have gathered in refugee camps in the desert areas surrounding Mosul. Temperatures during the day can reach 40 degrees Celsius in the summer.

Living conditions in the camps in Iraqi-controlled Mosul are poor, with bad food and dirty water. There is also a lack of health care.

Major Mohammad Hassan Abdullah is a medical doctor with the Iraqi Army. He works at a field clinic near the front lines.

We have 500 to 600 people coming every day, mostly babies and elderly people, he said. The problem could nearly be solved with clean water.

Zamin Makhool has one daughter still living. The family lives in a refugee camp. She says they get their food from non-governmental organizations. But food does not come every day.

Makhools husband, Ibrahim, says violence against children will continue as long as Islamic State militants hold territory in Iraq.

Ibrahim says he was trying to sell his car when the familys two young children were killed in the airstrike. The target of the attack was likely nearby Islamic State bases, or a house next door where militants were living.

It wasnt a mistake that airstrikes hit our neighborhood, Ibrahim Makhool said as he showed a picture of his destroyed home. There were three IS (Islamic State) bases in the area.

They live between families to try to stay safe, he said. Then when we are hit, they move on.

Im Mario Ritter.

Heather Murdoch reported this story for VOA News. Mario Ritter adapted it for VOA Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor.

What do you think can be done for families in Iraq? Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

________________________________________________________________

sheer adj. complete, total

front line --n. an area where soldiers are fighting

elderly adj. old, aged

Read the original:
Iraq Conflict Deadly for Children, Says UNICEF - Voice of America

Readers sent these letters to the editor for the July 3 issue of Army Times. Have thoughts you'd like to share on Army Times stories or letters? Send them to armylet@armytimes.com. Include your name, address, phone number and rank. Submissions may be published in print and online. A worthy dress uniform

I've been reading the service and dress uniform debate since 2001. While I'm not in favor of issuing pinks and greens uniforms to the whole Army or even making it optional, I have no problem with Pentagon staff being issued them.

Soldiers today only need a dress blue uniform (Army Service Uniform) for ceremonies and military balls. I would love a change with our current blues.

Many Soldiers are starting to catch on with another uniform that few know of. Soldiers I have shown this uniform love it. I think it would be an improvement over the current blue uniform. It's the Army 1902 Model Blue Uniform (enlisted version).

Could you please bring this uniform into the debate. It would be nice for Soldiers to know there weresharp-looking uniforms before World War II as well.

David Craft Arlington, Ohio

Screening officers for cognitive ability

A problem plaguing part of the Officer Corps in todays military is the low cognitive ability of some officers. There is no doubt that in order to be a successful leader in the military, you need to be an above average individual. This includes possessing an above-average cognitive ability to effectively solve the complex problems the military faces today.

In order to commission as an officer, there are many physical requirements an individual must pass, including a medical examination, and a physical fitness test. The military also requires that an individual be a college graduate. The military accepts that an individual who possesses a college degree also possesses a high degree of cognitive ability, and this is a mistake!

An individual who has a college degree does not necessarily possess the cognitive ability to be a successful officer.

There is a significant difference in academic rigor among todays colleges and universities. The academic challenge that a person faces at a service academy or an Ivy League school is much different than at less prestigious community colleges and state schools. The military, however, does not address this difference and values both degrees as equal when it comes to meeting the requirements to commission.

I am not arguing that individuals who attend community college, or smaller state schools are not capable of serving as officers in the military, I am arguing that because these individuals did not face the same academic challenges as their peers, that it is possible that they do not possess the cognitive ability to perform the job of an officer.

We need to administer a test that measures the cognitive ability of every officer entering the military. We already screen enlistees who are entering the military with the ASVAB, so why do we not do this with our officers? If we continue to associate a college degree with cognitive ability, we will continue to fail the enlisted ranks, as well as the country, by putting individuals in leadership positions that do not possess the tools necessary to succeed.

Capt. Robert Welch Fort Hood, Texas

Soldiers with the 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, demonstrate squad movements and room clearance procedures to Iraqi army soldiers with the 75th Brigade, 16th Division, at Besmaya Range Complex, Iraq, April 8, 2015. The demonstration was part of training led by coalition forces under Operation Inherent Resolve to aid the Iraqi army in its fight against the ISIS. Photo Credit: Sgt. Deja Borden/Army Iraq at crossroads

The liberation of Mosul and the wider Ninevah province from the Islamic State group and its brutal Salafist jihadi doctrine is the subject of many Iraqi conversations. To capitalize on the lessons learned from the bloody three-year battle, Iraqis must take stock of the political process.

Liberation is not a solution in itself and fundamental questions need to be asked: Do Iraqis want a united or divided country? What is better, a federal system or a confederation? Should there be a state dominated by the center or decentralized provinces with new and broad powers?

Was ISIS occupation of large swaths of Iraqi territory a sufficient warning of the fragility of the countrys political system, governance and social cohesion? Or do Iraqis (God forbid) need another horrific wake up call that will lead to the end of Iraq as we know it?

Have Iraqi parties failed to learn from the lessons of the crisis? Different factions have used the state to service their own narrow interests, taking advantage of the chaos when Iraq faced its greatest existential crisis.

What are the doses of antibiotics required in the Iraqi body so that terrorism departs for good? This is an urgent question that all Iraqis need to answer.

We shouldnt forget that when the liberation of Mosul is complete, the eyes of the international coalition will turn west toward Syria. Iraq is not immune from what is taking place next door. The government, NGOs and the international community must create a new environment in the liberated areas for social justice and work on a new formula for co-existence.

Despite all these challenges, Iraqis have shown the rest of the world that they have the strength of character to develop the countrys social and political fabric. Once Iraq has addressed the grand questions of rule of law, governance, revenue distribution and identity, the focus must then shift to defining a new political culture in Iraq and creating a roadmap for a confederation with the Kurdistan Regional Government, the most viable formula for co-existence with the Kurds.

Decentralization has to be accelerated, corruption addressed, a population census long overdue must be conducted for countrywide planning.

It wont be easy, but these are urgent and important moves for the people and future of Iraq.

Governing Iraq after liberation will be the real acid test of Iraqi leadership. The liberation of Mosul must be the start of the nations recovery, otherwise, warlords, camouflaged by different names and fronts, will prevail.

It is important to remember that the presence of ISIS militants in Mosul created a new generation of young supporters. It is necessary to admit that a new mutation of the group will be no less evil and acts of terrorism will continue. The threat has the potential to move inside cities, as well as some areas that remain outside the states authority. Let us not allow the liberation of Mosul to be a stopgap before the next wave of extremism.

Leaders must lead, and not be led.

Lukman Faily Former Iraqi Ambassador to the U.S.

Col. Mohammad Haroon (left), Regional Military Training Center-Kandahar commander, and Maj. Gen. Abdul Hamid (front), 205th Hero Corps commander, inspect Afghan National Army soldiers at Camp Hero, Afghanistan. According to a report from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, the U.S. has wasted millions of dollars on an ill-suited woodland camouflage pattern for the Afghan army. Photo Credit: Sgt. Ashley Curtis/Army Controversial Afghan camo

Note: Hundreds of readers commented on Army Times Facebook page responding to new woodland camouflage uniforms costing American taxpayers $28 million, though the camo was chosen by an official browsing online. Heres a sample of the comments:

Some Senator or Congressman should definitely throw a fit about this needless spending! Dear President Trump I just found a way you can save $28 million and it's not by switching to Geico.

Corey L Mclinko

They want to cut benefits to veterans injured in the war, sometimes by the very people we gave the uniforms to, yet we just keep dumping money into this bottomless pit called Afghanistan!!

Larry Hearold

Hey, they Army put me in a pale blue uniform that didn't work anywhere except grandma's couch so why should they have been any more diligent or less wasteful when in came to the Afghans?

Douglas Boyle

At least somebody besides Joe is mad about that stupidity. I love how the inspector explained it. "What if they liked pink uniforms!?!?"

JR Morris

More here:
Letters: Sharp-looking uniform; screening officers for ability; Iraq at crossroads; Afghan camo - ArmyTimes.com