Posted on 05/26/2017 7:12:42 PM PDT by mdittmar
The Iraqi air force dropped leaflets on Friday urging residents in the Islamic State-held Old City center of Mosul to flee, raising fears among humanitarian groups for the safety of desperate civilians there.
The leaflet drop, announced in an Iraqi military statement, signaled that the decisive offensive to dislodge the militants from their remaining enclave in the northern Iraqi city was imminent.
The U.S.-backed offensive on Mosul, now in its eighth month, has taken longer than planned as the militants are dug in among civilians, fighting back with booby traps, suicide cars and motor-bikes, snipers and mortar fire.
Civilians trapped behind Islamic State lines face a harrowing situation with little food and water, no electricity and limited access to hospitals.
"Iraqi air force planes dropped hundreds of thousands of leaflets a short while ago on the non-liberated areas ... urging citizens to exit through safe corridors," an Iraqi military statement said.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Nothing like a sneak attack. Telling the bad guys to shave their beards, and leave the battleground.
We have been training the Iraqis for 13+ years like this.
Get them out on the Highway.
I understand the desire to minimize civilian casualties, I really do... but when you make such a loud announcement that the massive offensive is coming, exactly how does that help the cause? UGH
Sure was nice to be sacrificed as American soldiers to reclaim the city and region for “Iraqi Freedom” and spend a billion training and equipping Iraqi forces only for it to be lost to ISIS again and again and again. What a joke.
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