cnrn/iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — An American service member died Thursday from wounds sustained in an IED explosion in northern Iraq, the U.S. military said. Further information was not immediately available.
Thursday marked the fourth day of the operation to liberate Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, from the Islamic State group’s control. About 18,000 Iraqi forces, 10,000 Kurdish forces known as peshmerga and a few thousand Iraqi federal police launched the massive military offensive on Monday. Roughly 100 American advisers are also involved in the mission, which is divided into two fronts — one west of the Great Zab River and the other just north of Qayyarah.
Only a “small number” of the nearly 5,000 American troops stationed in Iraq could find themselves in what a Pentagon spokesman called “a combat environment” while they advise the Iraqi and Kurdish forces involved in the operation.
“Early indications are that Iraqi forces have met their objectives so far and that they are ahead of schedule for this first day,” said Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook at a briefing Monday. “This is going according to the Iraqi plan, but again, it’s early and the enemy gets a vote here. We will see whether ISIL stands and fights.”
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said the operation is advancing “more quickly” than expected, as an Iraqi-led coalition of forces captured several more villages around Mosul today.
According to Kurdish peshmerga commanders, their forces have so far taken the towns of Barima, North Smaqa, South Smaqa, Fazilya, Nawaran, Imam Razil and the village of Dere. The troops are working to clear booby traps and IEDs from all the settlements under ISIS rule.
The peshmerga commanders told ABC News that Thursday morning’s operation aimed to clear more of the outlying villages around Mosul and to tighten the noose around the Islamic State’s last major stronghold in Iraq.
Meanwhile, to the south of Mosul, the Iraqi army is carefully pushing forward today while encountering booby-trapped explosives and fierce resistance from ISIS militants in some villages on the outskirts.
Iraqi special forces joined the fight for Mosul this morning. Iraqi Army Maj. Gen. Maan al-Saadi said the elite troops, also known as counterterrorism forces, advanced on the town of Bartella with the aid of U.S.-led coalition airstrikes and heavy artillery. The special forces are expected to carefully lead the way into Mosul.
“God willing, we will take this town today,” he said of Bartella, which ISIS seized in 2014.
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