SOUTH KURDISTAN (IRAQ) MESOP FLASH BY Masrour Barzani: It’s wrong to announce date of Mosul assault

14 March 2015 Waar, Duhok: Chancellor of the Kurdistan Region Security Council has said that it was “wrong” to announce the date of coalition’s assault against Islamic State (IS) in Mosul.In an interview with Vice News, Masrour Barzani said: “Militarily, I think it’s not very wise to warn the enemy and tell them to be prepared for a certain period of time when the attack will happen.”

Leaked reports from the Pentagon have revealed that an assault against ISIS in Mosul could be launched in March or April by the US-led coalition.Talking about the role of Peshmerga in the attack of Mosul, Mr Barzani noted that the Peshmerga fighters had done their job by clearing the northwest and east of Mosul. He believes there are more than 2,000 IS militants in addition to many sympathizers in Mosul. Masrour Barzani, who is the son of Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani, said that for such a coalition, defeating IS “shouldn’t be too difficult,” adding that an “effective ground force” was needed to destroy the terrorist group. IS overran Mosul in June 2014 when Iraqi soldiers left their posts and ran away from the city. Since then, the group has added large parts of Iraq to its self-styled caliphate. The US-led coalition has a strategy to liberate IS to weaken it and ultimately destroy it in Iraq.