Peshmerga will not participate in western Mosul operation: Ministry
There was a deal with Iraqi forces for the liberation of eastern Mosul, but there has been no agreement with Peshmerga regarding the western side of the city, an official from the Peshmerga Ministry said on Tuesday.
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – There was a deal with Iraqi forces for the liberation of eastern Mosul, but there has been no agreement with Peshmerga regarding the western side of the city, an official from the Peshmerga Ministry said on Tuesday.
The Chief of Staff of the Peshmerga forces from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Jamal Eminki told Kurdistan24 the Kurdish forces would not take part in the military operation to retake western Mosul from the Islamic State (IS).
“There was an agreement between Iraqi forces and Peshmerga for liberating the eastern part of Mosul, but there has been no agreement with Peshmerga for clearing the west,” Eminiki stated.
According to him, the plan for liberating western Mosul had only been set by the Iraqi forces and Baghdad, and Peshmerga were not requested to participate in the battle.
Eminiki noted if the Iraqi military commanders asked Peshmerga to take part in the operation, it needed the approval from the General Commander of the Kurdish Armed Forces who is the President of the Kurdistan Region Masoud Barzani.
IS occupied Mosul, the second-largest city in Iraq, in June 2014.
On Oct. 17, 2016, Iraqi forces with the cooperation of the Peshmerga launched a military offensive to retake Mosul from the insurgent group.
After the troops had liberated the east and northern parts of Mosul, the Prime Minister of Iraq Haider al-Abadi announced the operation to retake the remaining areas of the city on Feb. 19.
The second phase of the offensive aims at liberating the southern and western parts of the city.
Editing by Karzan Sulaivany
(Hoshmand Sadiq contributed to this report)