Iraqi forces, Peshmerga pound Topzawa village near Mosul

Record ID: 83885

  • Title: Iraqi forces, Peshmerga pound Topzawa village near Mosul
  • Date: 24th October 2016
  • Summary: TOPZAWA, NEAR BASHIQA, IRAQ (OCTOBER 24, 2016) (REUTERS) IRAQI ARMY VEHICLES IN THE OUTSKIRTS OF THE VILLAGE OF TOPZAWA VARIOUS OF IRAQI ARMY HUMVEES IN THE VILLAGE HEAVY DUST SMOKE RISING FROM A LOCATION TARGETED WITH A STRIKE PESHMERGA FORCES GATHERED NEAR A SAND BARRIER PESHMERGA SOLDIER STANDING ON A THE ROOF OF A BUILDING PESHMERGA SOLDIER PREPARING TO FIRE ROCKET LAUNCHER HEAVY SMOKE RISING FROM THE AREA PESHMERGA SOLDIERS GATHERED IN THE AREA ARMOURED VEHICLE
  • Embargoed: 8th November 2016 13:58
  • Keywords: Iraq Mosul Topzawa Islamic State Bashiqa
  • Location: TOPZAWA, NEAR BASHIQA, IRAQ
  • City: TOPZAWA, NEAR BASHIQA, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Insurgencies
  • Reuters ID: LVA00155D6YBR
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Backed by air support, Iraqi and Peshmerga forces stormed a village located northeast of Mosul on Monday (October 24) as part of a wider operation to recapture the city, which is the Islamic State's (IS) final stronghold in the area.
    The village of Topzawa is located 8 km northeast of Mosul and is close to the village of Bashiqa which was taken by Kurdish fighters on Sunday (October 23).
    Turkey has troops at the base in Bashiqa, where they have been helping to train Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga and Sunni fighters.
    Almost one week into the U.S.-led onslaught, many of those running the campaign say the battle to retake the city could be long and hard.
    Mosul, Iraq's second biggest city, is where IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared his Sunni caliphate in 2014, after his alliance between millenarian Islamists and veteran officers from the disbanded army of Saddam Hussein roared back into Iraq from bases they set up in the mayhem of Syria's war.
    Five Iraqi army divisions melted away before jihadis numbered in hundreds.
    The battle to retake Mosul pits an unwieldy coalition of a 30,000-strong Iraqi regular force backed by the US and Europeans, alongside Kurdish and Shi'ite militias, against jihadis who have exploited the Sunni community's sense of dispossession in Iraq and betrayal in Syria.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2016. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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