Operation Mosul: Over 1000 captured
posted at 3:03 pm on May 17, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
The Iraqi Army has just started its operation in Mosul to break al-Qaeda’s last stronghold in the western provinces, and from all indications, they appear to be succeeding. Reuters reports that Iraq has captured over 1,000 gunmen in the city and its environs, and many more have taken advantage of an amnesty offer:
Iraqi forces have detained more than 1,000 suspects in an offensive aimed at crushing al-Qaida in northern Iraq, the military commander of the operation said on Saturday.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki returned to Baghdad on Saturday after spending several days in the city of Mosul and surrounding Nineveh province to supervise the crackdown.
Many gunmen from Sunni Islamist al-Qaida have regrouped in Nineveh after being pushed out of other areas. The U.S. military said Mosul is al-Qaida’s last major urban stronghold in Iraq. …
Defense Ministry spokesman Major-General Mohammed al-Askari said scores of militants had already handed over their guns.
“We are committed to the amnesty and have reassured them there will be no judicial pursuit against them,” he said, adding the government would soon make public the compensation available for different kinds of weapons handed in.
Nouri al-Maliki has gotten his troops off to a good start. We’ll keep an eye on this story and keep up with its developments. A victory here could spell the end of AQI and deliver a bitter defeat to Osama bin Laden.
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Given time and U.S. support as needed, the Iraqi army will be successful.
richardcamera on May 17, 2008 at 3:09 PM
Maliki gettin` his groove on, he`s starting to impress me. I hope he keeps it up before he loses me again.
ThePrez on May 17, 2008 at 3:11 PM
I really think Maliki is doing an incredible job, especially with the hand he was dealt. I am behind you iraqis! stand up and take your country and succeed!
SoCalInfidel on May 17, 2008 at 3:13 PM
How will Harry Reid ever be able to look one of our soldiers in the eye again? The war is not lost, Harry, it’s actually called an incredible victory for Iraq, the middle east, and humanity you spineless wash.
THE CHOSEN ONE on May 17, 2008 at 3:15 PM
Another victory for Moqtada al-Sadr.
Purple Fury on May 17, 2008 at 3:16 PM
Now if only we could teach the Lebanese to not be such push-overs…
Vatican Watcher on May 17, 2008 at 3:23 PM
There’s still time to talk you know.
Kini on May 17, 2008 at 3:24 PM
It’s all over the Iraqi news. Just check Aswat al-Iraq, but American media is asleep at the switch. What a schnooze fest. The Obama sweetie comment was funny for about two seconds.
LT Nixon on May 17, 2008 at 3:28 PM
This goes back to the poll result that were in the headlines yeterday. They compared American interest in different news stories to actual coverage of those news stories. 11 percent were interested in the situation in Iraq, but Iraq was only the subject of 1 percent of the news stories.
I guess we know: Good news is not news at all.
jimmy the notable on May 17, 2008 at 3:31 PM
here’s the link: the graph is halfway down.
jimmy the notable on May 17, 2008 at 3:33 PM
From the article:
What are the odds she will return with good news about how well the Iraq Army is progressing and how the current strategy is crushing AQI?
I will put my money on a modest acknowledgement of improving conditions with an enormous disclaimer about how it’s not fast enough, and we need to pull our troops to make the Iraqi’s stand up and take control of their own country. I’ll even take a proposition beet that she works “appeasement” into her press conference in some way to disparage the President.
Mallard T. Drake on May 17, 2008 at 3:37 PM
That’s not some secret ingredient for Borscht. It’s a proposition bet….:-)
Mallard T. Drake on May 17, 2008 at 3:40 PM
D’oh. Forgot the link:
http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=421
jimmy the notable on May 17, 2008 at 3:41 PM
The truth is not relevant to a liberal, it is only what they want it to be. Pelosi will twist this obvious improvement as too little too late. The democrats are commited to defeat and appeasement. Victory to a democrat is a nightmare.
volsense on May 17, 2008 at 3:49 PM
Nice work, I.A.’s! Pile ‘em up and use ‘em for cover!
Tony737 on May 17, 2008 at 3:49 PM
Before the Civil War people refered to the U.S. in the plural form (i.e. “the United States are…”) and after the war people began using the singular (“the United States is…).
I hope that these successes in Iraq have, at least to some small extent, the same effect.
29Victor on May 17, 2008 at 3:57 PM
Fixed it for you.
Kafir on May 17, 2008 at 4:05 PM
Good point.
They need to create national institutions in service to the nation with a sense of national identity. An interesting item to note is that John Burns, the great and courageous NY Times reporter, said that during the Iran-Iraq war that many Iraqis, including the Shi’a, rallied around the government. Nationalism overrode sectarianism.
If that’s done – the creation of a national, trans-sectarian identity – the Persians will be in trouble when they try to interfere.
And we can get our folks out of there a lot sooner.
SteveMG on May 17, 2008 at 4:07 PM
It will be interesting to follow what becomes of the 1000 captured. Since Maliki got them, let him decide. Outsiders should not determine for him.
maverick muse on May 17, 2008 at 4:07 PM
Well, you’ve got Mookie surrendering Basra, and capitulating in Sadr City, no less; you’ve got the Iraqi Army–yes, and the word that comes to mind is–mopping up in Mosul, and damned if this isn’t starting to look an awful lot like victory. The only “failed policy” talk that might be credible is the Dems victory-is-not-an-option policy of the past five years.
Typhoon on May 17, 2008 at 4:08 PM
Great news! I hope we can keep this going…
WisCon on May 17, 2008 at 4:13 PM
How dare the Iraqi’s win a huge victory just to mock Obama. I’m sure his followers will issue an outrage filled statement shortly because, as we all know, it’s all about HIM.
Buzzy on May 17, 2008 at 4:16 PM
The more success we have in Iraq, the less the MSM talk about it.
Thank God for the internet.
God speed to General Petraeus and the American Soldier.
Baxter Greene on May 17, 2008 at 4:19 PM
No offense to our Brit friends, but their military command screwed the pooch down there. Instead of adapting the US model that has proved so successful, they instead operated from their bases without working closely enough with the Iraqi forces and civilians.
Glad to see that things are beginning to go in the right direction.
Hollowpoint on May 17, 2008 at 4:21 PM
Take a close look at that picture of Maliki. Now imagine him with a trimmed beard.
Were he and Robert Spencer separated at birth?
locomotivebreath1901 on May 17, 2008 at 4:22 PM
This is wonderful news. God bless all our military. Go get the bad guys.
L
letget on May 17, 2008 at 4:27 PM
It’s not at all beyond the realm of possibility that the Democrats will carefully walk away from their surrender policy, depending on the usual smoke screen of bluster, equivocation, and outright lies. If need be, they can shout that they have always been committed to victory, take credit for pushing President Bush toward reversing course and for pressuring the Iraqi government from afar, and express regret that it took the evil, benighted Republicans so long, at such great cost, to see the multivarious errors in their ways. Hedging statements and provisos will be detected amidst all the leftist-pleasing campaign promises and pronouncements. If Iraq persists as an issue in their minds, it will simply be as an illustration of Republican incompetence, a kind of foreign policy Katrina. Barack Obama will promise to listen carefully to his new best friend General Betray – er Petraeus as he plans a tidy and “responsible” wrap up of the great “strategic bhlunder” that, by Democratic Party genius, can somehow be turned into a victory after all – all hail the great Obamessiah, forever and ever, amen…
CK MacLeod on May 17, 2008 at 4:31 PM
After 24 hours on the ground, Nancy will return and proclaim that no political progress has been made. Time to leave and begin the war crime trials.
She came, she saw, she split.
Limerick on May 17, 2008 at 4:44 PM
Suddenly it seems so easy.
BL@KBIRD on May 17, 2008 at 4:54 PM
Exactly right. “It took us calling for pullout for Maliki and Bush to shape up.”
MrLynn on May 17, 2008 at 4:55 PM
It took a long time (probably longer then it should have) for the U.S. military to shape the battlefield. A massive amount of effort, sweat, tears, and elbow grease went into getting the IA in the right place, at the right time, with the right training.
Yes we stumbled and dropped the ball. No worse, or no better then we dropped the ball with the 1st Marine Division on Guadalcanal, or the Bastards of Bataan. We regrouped, ajusted, went forward.
Too bad it comes at the worst possible time. Pelosi is there telling Maliki that he better get his family outta town cause America is leaving in about 250 days. Count on it.
Limerick on May 17, 2008 at 5:05 PM
Isn’t it astounding that at the same time the Iraqis are finaly showing the ability to stand, Pelosi and her Dems are calling for withdrawl?
I mean, there is LITERALY a surrender bill in the House RIGHT NOW!
Romeo13 on May 17, 2008 at 5:37 PM
Even at this late date, after getting so many scenarios wrong, I’m amazed that politicians, pundits, bloggers etc still pretend to think that they have any idea or useful suggestions to shape the battle space.
Let me see if I get this right. Pelosi or anyone for that matter while contemplating their navel has a brainstorm and rushes out the next day to pontificate about it. Meanwhile generals, colonels, captains who have spent their entire adult lives studying warfare are to be given advice or pushed aside. I understand civilian rule over the military as a concept but not as a field commander.
Anyway once the shooting starts I sit back and trust the military to do their job just as Bush has. And here’s a prediction. If Obama gets elected(god help us domestically) he will do the same thing. He says he won’t but he will. Just like Nixon. The adoring press will massage his message and all of a sudden day to day activities will seem like Normandy victories.
My prediction from almost two years ago at CQ’s still stands. Thinking that Hillary would be president I said once in office we would see schools, hospitals, clean water, electricity hookups every night on the MSN further proof that Hillary’s approach to the war is working. Her threats were listened to and now the military is marching to victory. Who knew Obama then?
patrick neid on May 17, 2008 at 5:39 PM
Actually, Mosul is up there, in northern Iraq. We are responsible for the screw up there. In Yon’s book, he says that is where Petraeus was first stationed and implemented his COIN policy. Everything was going fine, then his group was rotated out and the replacements did not continue doing COIN and the whole thing fell apart.
Kafir on May 17, 2008 at 5:39 PM
No, no. Pelosi’s visit is intended to provide the evidence that the Congress no longer needs to fund the war in Iraq.
I can’t wait for Bush to write his memories on Iraq! I do believe what we are seeing unfold now is the very action plan that was put into place back .. summer 2006? .. when Bush met with Maliki in Jordan and Sadr got so pissed he left the government.. I think his first time.. :-)
But I remember the meeting was delayed but I remember Bush and Maliki at the presser saying that the essence of the new strategy was to build the effectiveness of the IA, not just in numbers but in skills.
And Bush is exonerated for his steadfast support of Maliki.
I don’t think it so much that we stumbled although mistakes have been made. I think it more of a learning curve and I can just imagine how difficult it is to change the paradigm of military commanders who have been bred on traditional military doctrine.
One of the most interesting things I found in Michael Yon’s book was the dispatches from George Washington to Benedict Arnold (before he sold out his country) concerning the conduct of the Army while in Canada trying to enlist their assistance or at least their neutrality in regard to the British.
BTW, did you hear that Petraeus had recommended the promotion to General of many of those who were instrumental in implementing the surge?
Texas Gal on May 17, 2008 at 6:12 PM
Democrats and the MSM cried.
jukin on May 17, 2008 at 6:14 PM
I would hope you are right Patrick but I’ve got this sickening feeling that there are many Democrats behind the curtain. Obama ain’t got a clue on how to run this country much less defend it. I watched his senior foreign policy advisor, Dr. Susan Rice, the other day trying to justify Obama’s negotiating vs appeasement crap and she scared me to death!
See, I think the reason they have all abandoned Hillary is because that know they can’t tell her .. or him.. what to do. But they sure as hell can control Obama. To me, look at who is supporting him and see the hands up the sock puppet!
Texas Gal on May 17, 2008 at 6:22 PM
Quick! We need a sound bite from Reid, Pelosi and Murtha. We might well snap defeat from the jaws of victory if we move fast enough! Maybe they can get together on camera and give us another redition of “We Surrender Dear”.
GarandFan on May 17, 2008 at 6:30 PM
A victory here could spell the end of AQI and deliver a bitter defeat to
Osama bin LadenAmerica-hating, terrorist-coddling liberals, everywhere.Virus-X on May 17, 2008 at 6:42 PM
A victory here could spell the end of AQI and deliver a bitter defeat to
Osama bin Laden.Barack Obama.Buy Danish on May 17, 2008 at 6:46 PM
McMaster and the 3rd ACR, the Battle of Tal Afar. They knocked AQ into the dirt and AQ ran for the hills. Then 3rd ACR rotated out and Sanchez went back to his ‘island’ defense. AQ moved back in and Tal Afar had to be cleaned out all over again.
Of course the MSM had to proclaim that it was a disaster…
Time magazine reporter Michael Ware stabbed the 3rd ACR in the back during his imbed in the operation. After living with the 3rd ACR for three weeks, giving them a well done and a promise to provide a fair write up, he went back to Time Magazine and wrote his piece on the futility of war.
CBS -(Actually an upbeat report-then at the end they let you know it was a futile effort)
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/10/60minutes/main1389390.shtml
TIME-Michael Ware (Who gives the MSM epitaph to the operation at the end of this whoa-is-me article)
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1106333-1,00.html
SALON-(It was a disaster, trust us)
http://archive.salon.com/politics/war_room/2005/12/01/talafar/print.html
The 3rd ACR received the Presidential Unit Citation for this action. It was the test bed for the surge strategy.
CBS, TIME, and Salon haven’t decided to provide a follow on story to the battle of Tal Afar. It doesn’t fit into their reality. Success scares the hell out of the MSM and their lefty ‘negotiators’.
Now we have Tal Afar, Fallujah, Basra, Sadr City, and Mosul, and dozens of other examples of kicking AQ in the dirt and making real progress in assisting IA to stand up for themselves. None of it will matter when Pelosi gets back on the plane. Her report is already written…..we lost the war, time to come home. Barry will read her report and hide the JCS report in the drawer.
Limerick on May 17, 2008 at 6:47 PM
Al Maliki returned from Mosul to meet with Speaker Pelosi.
Headline should have said Al Maliki returned from Mosul to arrest and interrogate terrorist supporter Pelosi.
Could we please get them to JUST KEEP HER! She’ll be happy to cover her head with a burka, scarf, brown paper bag, whatever, if you just pay attention to her.
dhunter on May 17, 2008 at 6:48 PM
Dr.Cwac.Cwac on May 17, 2008 at 6:57 PM
Michael Ware is a very strange case. In HOUSE TO HOUSE, David Bellavia’s first person account of the fighting in Fallujah, Ware plays a prominent role – literally a few steps behind Bellavia during the climactic, most dangerous actions. Ware clearly seems to be a danger junkie, very skilled at earning the trust and respect of soldiers, apparently on both sides. I’ve also seen and heard various stories about Ware’s eccentricities – his drinking, his other violation of “best practices” for a journalist. Still, when you read how someone like Bellavia – a true hero in my opinion – describes Ware, it’s hard to despise him. Though a lot of his reporting has come across as defeatist and mouth-droppingly opinionated, I’ve come to think of it in the same way you’d react to a soldier’s grousing, while also excusing the tendency among many fighters to identify with their immediate counterparts, the enemy, sometimes even while at the same time hating them.
Over the last year or so when I’ve happened to catch Ware’s reports, he’s still been pushing an Iran-as-puppetmaster theme, but he’s also witheringly derided the positions of those who supported a quick withdrawal in seeming full denial of the likely disastrous effects.
CK MacLeod on May 17, 2008 at 7:25 PM
I haven’t read Bellavia’s book, but with your write up it will be on my nightstand tomorrow.
My post, I admit, violates the ‘best practices’ rule (although I am no journalist obviously). Ware tailed my son around for several days during the Tal Afar operation. My son’s op-ed on Michael Ware would be a bit harsher then my own. Ancedotal, I know, but I have to weigh my boy’s opinion pretty heavily.
Limerick on May 17, 2008 at 7:35 PM
Oh really now. You’re supposed to blame the British. Toe the line whydoncha.
aengus on May 17, 2008 at 7:40 PM
Y’know the sad fact is and has been revealed time and time again that some journalist embed with our guys in Iraq just to cherry pick their experience to support their pre-conceived opinions.
So much for freedom of the press!
Texas Gal on May 17, 2008 at 7:40 PM
Yep, Limerick, as I recall he is on Petraeus’ list for promotion.
Texas Gal on May 17, 2008 at 7:42 PM
They need to fond out as much intel from these people that they can about weapons caches stored throughout the country, also any other intel that they know of that could be helpful, and let them know that cash rewards could be gained for good intel. :}
Chakra Hammer on May 17, 2008 at 8:06 PM
Even apart from the odd cameo by Mr. Ware, HOUSE TO HOUSE is a great but very gritty read, as I recall even harsher than the Marine’s view of Fallujah that you can get in WE WERE ONE.
Thanks, by the way, to both you and your son.
CK MacLeod on May 17, 2008 at 8:10 PM
No, it won’t be a bitter defeat. Iraq is a mere abstraction to bin Laden. Bin Laden needs a real bitter defeat of the historical sort, like when you execute his favorite child in front of him.
thuja on May 17, 2008 at 8:17 PM
Obama needs Iraq to be in the crapper so very badly. He needs it to be a quagmire so that the genocide that occurs after we pull out can be blamed on Bush.
If there is progress being made, we pull out, and then what we all know will happen happens, whomever ordered the pullout will be blamed.
29Victor on May 17, 2008 at 8:25 PM
Hopefully soon US troops can come home because the Job is Done!
hadsil on May 17, 2008 at 8:56 PM
29Victor
What do you suppose Pelosi was doing over there? She’s trying to see how see can help THE TERRORISTS!
Pelosi, “come al Quida please hang on just a few more months. Blow up a few hundred more innocent Iraqis, a few more children and when Obama wins he will pull the troops out and give you your hard earned reward. Iraq and all its’ riches”
dhunter on May 17, 2008 at 8:58 PM
Challenging the Generals
McMaster’s own fate has reinforced these apprehensions. President Bush has singled out McMaster’s campaign at Tal Afar as a model of successful strategy. Gen. David Petraeus, now commander of United States forces in Iraq, frequently consults with McMaster in planning his broader counterinsurgency campaign. Yet the Army’s promotion board — the panel of generals that selects which few dozen colonels advance to the rank of brigadier general — has passed over McMaster two years in a row.
McMaster’s nonpromotion has not been widely reported, yet every officer I spoke with knew about it and had pondered its implications. One colonel, who asked not to be identified because he didn’t want to risk his own ambitions, said: “Everyone studies the brigadier-general promotion list like tarot cards — who makes it, who doesn’t. It communicates what qualities are valued and not valued.”
Hopefully Petraeus will straighten out the Army’s promotion board.
MB4 on May 17, 2008 at 9:19 PM
Amen.
Drinks for everyone on me in favor of this.
Every time – ever damned time – I see photos of the Iraqi children running to our soldiers for candy or to have their pictures taken, I think of an American child who lost their father over there. Or mother.
It kills me.
Michael Totten always has a bunch of photos of Iraqi children laughing.
Talk about giving someone mixed feelings.
SteveMG on May 17, 2008 at 9:21 PM
Ware and his employer are both garbage. What they did prior to the 06 midterm election by televising enemy propaganda is unforgivable. (remember the videos where our soldiers are shown being killed by an enemy sniper(s)).
i don’t care how much ware has cavorted with our troops he is filth.
elduende on May 17, 2008 at 9:59 PM
I have faith that he will MB4. If I recall there are about 100 names on Petraeus’s list for promotion.
Texas Gal on May 17, 2008 at 10:18 PM
Bin Laden’s alive?!?
Pythagoras on May 17, 2008 at 10:26 PM
Thanks for the link. I sent it up the line (although I know Bandit Troop/Dragon Squadron already are aware of it).
Same crap that the U.S. military has been dealing with for 233 years. They always reach for the same solution after the boni screw up the command positions. From Civil War generals, to WWII sub skippers, to fly too high squadron commanders…..the doers finally get permission to pass over the creme for the grit.
All I can add is that I know the men in Bandit well and all that served with McMaster would walk across Olaf’s Lake of Fire for the man.
Same Army, different day.
Limerick on May 17, 2008 at 10:44 PM
“Guys like Yingling, Nagl and McMaster are the canaries in the coal mine of Army reform,” the retired two-star general I spoke with told me. “Will they get promoted to general? If they do, that’s a sign that real change is happening. If they don’t, that’s a sign that the traditional culture still rules.”
MB4 on May 17, 2008 at 10:56 PM
YES WE CAN!!!!
Shame on those elected officials and my own fellow citizens who ever doubted (and sometimes even rooted for a defeat) our fine military forces and our Iraqi allies. Yeah, it was rough for a while. We f’ed up quite a bit between 2004-2006 but as Michael Yon writes about in his book, we got a second chance and we have made quite a bit of progress with that chance though we still need more troops according to Yon but it seems the Iraqis stepped up to fill that bill.
Yakko77 on May 18, 2008 at 12:01 AM
Are kids not supposed to laugh or are they not supposed to like candy?
Also, how many of the kids in Iraq lost their fathers or mothers to terrorist bombings?
Chakra Hammer on May 18, 2008 at 12:04 AM
Every time – ever damned time – I see photos of the Iraqi children running to our soldiers for candy or to have their pictures taken, I think of an American child who lost their father over there. Or mother.
Steve, I fully understand what you feel, but I feel strongly that the sacrifices that many have suffered are so that our future generation wont. Or at least not to this degree.
If we left this infection alone we may lose more than a limb.
Sonosam on May 18, 2008 at 1:12 AM
That has to be the smartest thing ever heard! Just look at Somalia and Lebanon. Lossons learned. Why can’t libs see this? But yet they want us to get involved in Darfur, just like Mogadishu. Let us finish the fight, for the love of God! Or for the love of your mom if you’re an atheist. Or for the love of Gov’t if you’re a liberal. Let us win! The only thing holding us back is YOU!
El Guapo on May 18, 2008 at 3:24 AM
If you don’t think they know that, and are proud of it, you are mistaken. The leftist loves a different America than you or I, and if America is not like that, he wants ours to fail, and fail tragically, so that it is discredited and he and his friends can get on with the project of making it what they want.
The other mistake is thinking they care what we want, or what our values are. They do not. The mask that slipped from Obama’s smiling face in SF was the mask of “caring”. The leftist is innately a contradiction: he lectures unceasingly about caring, but in secret is utterly uninterested and uncaring about anyone or anything that does not further his agenda.
drunyan8315 on May 18, 2008 at 9:05 AM
1,000 captured??? When are these guys going to learn their lesson? These terrorists need to be killed in battle, not captured. If they find a group of them they need to drop a bomb on them before anybody says a word. You can’t surrender to a bomb.
I’m not suggesting war crimes here, I’m just saying that the Iraqis need to be extremely aggressive in how they engage these animals.
Mojave Mark on May 19, 2008 at 1:22 AM
Mark,
captured = intel. We and the IA both want to roll up the whole network. Every one of these guys who tells the IA where the weapons are, the bosses are, or the hideouts are, helps the IA clean house faster. This is still happening down here in the South. The JAM want to come back, and the IA have been capturing them…
major john on May 19, 2008 at 8:30 AM