The Shirqat offensive, codenamed Operation Conquest or Operation Fatah, was an offensive against the positions of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in and around the district of Al-Shirqat District to reach the city of Mosul.
The offensive was a joint effort by the Iraqi government forces with allied militias, local Assyrian, Yezidi, Turkmen and Armenian militias, as well as Peshmerga and US and UK air support and limited ground forces. The aim of the operation, part of the military intervention against ISIL, was to set the conditions for an upcoming battle to push ISIL out of the second-largest city of Iraq, as well as the rest of the Nineveh Governorate. The operation followed the Mosul offensive in 2015, which successfully recaptured parts of the region northwest of Mosul, but stopped short of breaching the city itself, for various reasons.
Early in the morning of 21 October 2016, on the fifth day of the Mosul offensive, dozens of ISIL fighters assaulted the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, 175 kilometers (110 mi) from Mosul. After entering the city, ISIL members split up into groups of three to five fighters and spread out to five areas in the city after infiltrating on foot, and the battle lasted into the evening. By 22 October 2016, four of the five areas had been secured, with ISIL fighters remaining alive in the Dumez district. The strategy by Islamic State seems to have only been partially effective, as although it diverted media attention from the Mosul offensive, none of the forces used to repel the ISIL fighters came from the Mosul offensive.
Background
June 2014
In June 2014, Islamic state fighters took control of the city of Mosul, Iraq's second- largest city, and the surrounding towns and villages. Civilians in Mosul and other areas in the province of Ninewa were swept up in the group's reign of terror. In October 2016, Iraq and Kurdish armed forces launched a military operation to retake Mosul. They recaptured territory in areas surrounding Mosul and several neighborhoods in the east of the city. Islamic state fighters have used civilians as human shields and carried out suicide bombings.
After the fall of Mosul to ISIL forces on 10 June 2014, the United States and the Iraqi Government made plans to retake the city. Initially, the plan called for an assault on Mosul in July or August 2015. From late January through early February 2015, the Peshmerga launched an offensive on northwest Mosul with 5,000 soldiers, cutting ISIL supply lines to Tal Afar, and coming within 10 kilometers (6 mi) of the city center, from Mosul's northwestern outskirts. In May 2015, the fall of Ramadi to ISIL delayed the planned offensive to retake Mosul to 2016. In late December, the Iraqi Army fully encircled Ramadi and launched another offensive to retake the city, fully recapturing Ramadi in December 2015 and the neighboring districts in February 2016. In late February 2016, 4,000 Iraqi soldiers redeployed to the Makhmour area in the southwestern Erbil Governorate, in preparation for an offensive on Mosul.
Offensive
March
The offensive began on 24 March 2016, near the Makhmur area of Nineveh Governorate. Thousands of Iraqi troops had been deployed there in the previous weeks, setting up bases alongside Kurdish and US forces. While advancing westward toward the oil town of Qayyarah, Iraqi troops were reported to have recaptured several villages from ISIL, among them Al-Nasr, Garmandi, Kudila and Khurburdan, though it was later revealed that ISIL was still occupying Al-Nasr and the government forces were trying to capture it.
Around 4,000 soldiers, from two brigades of the U.S.-trained 15th Division of the Iraqi army, including Sunni tribal fighters (considered by Peshmerga commanders to be crucial to hold the traditionally Sunni areas), met stiff resistance. It was reported that they were attacked by suicide bombers as well as with mortars and machine guns, which stopped the advance for the time being. Warplanes of the U.S.-led coalition against ISIL launched multiple airstrikes on at least two locations. 200 U.S. Marines had set up a small outpost called Firebase Bell in the previous weeks. From there they provided artillery and targeting support for Iraqi forces. The presence of U.S. Marines became known after one of them was recently killed by the detonation of a roadside bomb. Kurdish Peshmerga forces didn't take an active part, contenting themselves with holding the front line at what they consider the border of their territory. It was announced on 27 March that Abu Furqan al-Misry, an ISIL commander and executioner who was a notorious figure in the region, had been killed.
There were reports of 25 ISIL fighters killed as the Iraqi army shelled ISIL headquarters in Qayyarah.
April
By the first days of April 2016, thousands of Mosul residents began to flee the area, as Iraqi government forces inched closer toward the city. ISIL reportedly started using the chemistry lab of the Mosul University for making bombs.
The Joint Task Force carried out airstrikes against ISIL near Qayyarah on 1 April. The airstrikes destroyed a weapon storage facility, a tactical vehicle and two mortar firing positions.
IraqiNews.com reported on 2 April that 40 ISIL militants had been killed by government forces in different regions south of Mosul, including six suicide bombers and one senior leader.
The ISIL-occupied Turkish Consulate was destroyed by airstrikes from the U.S.-led coalition after Turkey had given its approval for targeting the consulate. Later on the same day, the Iraqi Army killed 30 militants and detonated a booby-trapped vehicle in the village of al-Nasr, in Makhmur District south of Mosul.
On 5 April, Coalition aircraft bombed a training headquarters belonging to ISIL near the Grand Mosque in Mosul, killing 50 Islamic State fighters, as well as destroying their headquarters completely.
On 6 April, Iraqi security forces from the army's 15th brigade, Peshmerga, and tribal fighters resumed military operations, after receiving information about the presence of a large number of booby-trapped vehicles and suicide bombers belonging to ISIL in al-Nasr village south of Mosul, killing 70 ISIL militants and destroying seven car bombs.
The Iraqi government released footage on 7 April that showed an airstrike conducted by the coalition forces in Mosul which destroyed a bridge that was being used to ferry supplies by ISIL. In addition, the government claimed that a number of militants had been killed in the airstrikes, as well as other roads and bridges used as supply lines by ISIL being cut off. On the same day, US-led coalition aircraft carried out an air strike targeting a laboratory of chlorine-filled rockets, chlorine gas and other toxic materials belonging to ISIL in al-Saawiya village in Qayyara District, killing 30 fighters who were inside the laboratory and destroying it completely.
On 9 April, at least 30 ISIL militants were killed by Coalition airstrikes in Mosul. Two airstrikes struck an ISIL defensive fence in Al-Haj, south of Mosul, killing over 20 militants and pulverizing the base. 10 ISIL militants were also killed when Coalition jets pounded another site in the Al-Mahanna district, to the south of Mosul. British aircraft carried out airstrikes near Mosul and Qayyarah on 12 April, taking out an ISIL rocket-launching team near Mosul and a mortar team near Qayyarah. On 16 April, a Coalition airstrike killed Imad Khalid Afar, a senior ISIL commander and adviser, near the Salam Hospital.
On 18 April, US and Peshmerga forces carried out a raid in Hamam Alil, to the south of Mosul, killing three ISIL militants. One of them was Salam Abd Shabib al-Jbouri, the top ISIL commander in Mosul. On the same day, the Peshmerga launched an offensive on Khorsabad, to the northeast of Mosul, capturing the villages of Nawara and Barima, as well as the Khorsabad Intersection, to the north of Khorsabad. By 19 April, Peshmerga forces entered Khorsabad.
On 27 April, the Iraqi Army captured Mahana, a village in the Makhmour area located southeast of Qayyarah. The clashes and the aerial bombardments at Mahana resulted in the deaths of 200 ISIL militants. On the same day, the Iraqi Army shelled Khayata village, in the Qayyara district, killing 35 ISIL militants. On 29 April, the Iraqi Army repelled an ISIL counterattack on the villages of Mahana and Khardan, killing 91 ISIL militants. An Australian ISIL recruiter, Neil Prakash, also known by his alias Abu Khaled al-Cambodi, was killed in a US airstrike in Mosul on the same day.
May 2016
On 2 May, nine ISIL militants were killed by a shelling conducted by the Iraqi Army 15th Brigade on an ISIL gathering in Shayla village in Makhmur District, south of Mosul.
On 3 May, at 7:30 am, 125 ISIL militants with more than 20 vehicles attacked a Peshmerga position, near the town of Tel Skuf, 28–30 km north of Mosul, where a dozen U.S. troops acting as advisors were visiting. American and Peshmerga forces fought back but the militants broke into the position using three truck bombs followed by bulldozers which cleared the wreckage away. The Peshmerga and U.S. forces called for a Quick Reaction Force (QRF) which responded and joined the battle, helping the advisors and other personnel to withdraw. 11 to 13 U.S. aircraft; F-15s F-16s, A-10s, B-52s and two drones carried out 31 airstrikes, which destroyed two more truck bombs, and together the coalition forces repelled the attack. The battle continued for another 12 hours, in total; 58 militants were killed, three mortars and 20 of their vehicles were destroyed, Peshmerga forces captured at least three US-made Humvees that ISIL had itself captured from the Iraqi military in 2014. Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Charles Keating IV; a U.S. Navy SEAL who was part of the QRF, was struck by direct ISIL small arms fire at 9:32 am, he was medevaced to a medical facility in Erbil where he later died of his wound, making him the third American serviceman to be killed in combat during Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq. 10 Peshmerga fighters were also killed and a further 30 wounded, two U.S. medevac helicopters were also damaged by small arms fire. The Islamic State attack was part of their counter-offensive on multiple fronts overnight to obtain new ground. Near Tel Skuf, ISIL covertly assembled their forces and attacked before 6 am into Kurdish territory, destroying a Peshmerga checkpoint on the way to Tel Skuf. Iraqi military sources said that special forces had foiled an attack by five suicide bombers in the village of Khirbirdan, and Peshmerga forces repelled an Islamic State assault on Wardak. Coalition aircraft carried out seven airstrikes near Mosul, hitting six groups of ISIL fighters as well as two vehicles, three weapons caches, a mortar system and other targets. U.S. Army Colonel Steve Warren labeled the offensive as one of the most complex battlefield operations launched by ISIL since December 2015.
On 6 May, coalition aviation conducted an aerial strike on a gathering of ISIL forces in the village of al-Ju'wana in the district of Makhmour, resulting in the death of 20. On 7 May, coalition aviation carried out an air strike, destroying an ISIL fuel station south of Mosul, killing 17.
On 9 May, Iraqi forces retook the northern village of Kabrouk from ISIL, supported by artillery and airstrikes from the U.S.-led Coalition, killing 40 militants during the liberation that took less than two hours while militants put up little resistance in the village. This advance brought Iraqi forces slightly closer to the oil town of Qayyara on the western banks of the Tigris River.
On 29 May, Peshmerga forces, consisting of 5,500 fighters, supported by the Coalition airstrikes, retook al-Muftiyah and Jim Kour towns near Mosul. From 28 to 30 May, Peshmerga forces recaptured nine villages to the southeast of Mosul, including Mufti, Tulaband, Shuqali and Wardak. Four Peshmerga fighters and 140 ISIL militants were killed in the clashes.
On 31 May, the Iraqi army repelled an ISIL attack on the areas of Kabrouk, Mahana and Kharbrdan west of Makhmur, killing 22 ISIL fighters. During the attack the militants used two booby-trapped vehicles against the army's district headquarters.
June 2016
On 12 June, the Iraqi Army started a renewed offensive south of Mosul to capture the village of Hajj Ali, on the banks of the River Tigris. The offensive was supported by coalition warplanes, after U.S. and Iraqi units had hit ISIL positions with artillery in the recent days. On 13 June the Iraqi Army captured Hajj Ali along with the villages of Khirab Jabri and Kaproki.
Two senior Islamic State group commanders were killed in a US airstrike in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on 25 June, according to the Pentagon. The strike killed ISIL's deputy war minister, Basim Muhammad Ahmad Sultan al-Bajari, and a military commander named Hatim Talib al-Hamduni, the Pentagon said in a statement. Al-Bajari was suspected of organizing mustard gas attacks and leading the group's takeover of Mosul in 2014.
July 2016
On 7 July, the Iraqi Army captured an area on the Tigris River to the southwest of Haj Ali, linking up two fronts, and besieging an ISIL pocket containing 100+ villages and the town of Hawija.
On 9 July, the Iraqi Army recaptured Qayyarah Airfield West in Nineveh province from ISIL, reportedly "without any resistance". The airfield was considered a "strategic launch-pad" for the ongoing Mosul offensive.