BAGHDAD: Iraq brought all of its territory still held by the Daesh group under attack Thursday, announcing an assault on the second of two remaining jihadist enclaves.
Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi said the attack on the besieged Daesh pocket around the mainly Sunni Arab northern town of Hawija, began at dawn and predicted it would bring a new victory against the crumbling jihadists.
The enclave, which was bypassed by government forces in their drive north to second city Mosul last year, has been a bastion of insurgency ever since the first year of the US-led occupation in 2003.
After the defeat of Daesh in Mosul in July and the recapture of adjacent areas, Hawija and neighboring towns form the last enclave still held by Daesh apart from a section of the Euphrates Valley downstream from the Iraqi border.
“At the dawn of a new day, we announce the launch of the first stage of the liberation of Hawija, in accordance with our commitment to our people to liberate all Iraqi territory and eradicate Daesh’s terrorist groups,” Abadi said.
“Greetings to all of our forces, who are waging several battles of liberation at the same time and who are winning victory after victory and this will be another, with the help of God,” he said.
An AFP correspondent heard heavy shelling around the Daesh-held town of Sharqat where Iraqi forces have been massing in recent days.
Hawija earned the nickname of “Kandahar in Iraq” from US-led coalition troops from the early months after the invasion of 2003 for the ferocious resistance it put up similar to that in the Taliban militia’s bastion in Afghanistan.
Located west of the ethnically divided Kurdish-held city of Kirkuk, Hawija also lies on a fault line of Arab-Kurdish tensions.
Despite forming part of Kirkuk province, the area is overwhelmingly Sunni Arab and bitterly opposed to Kurdish ambitions to incorporate Kirkuk in their autonomous region in the north.
Preparations for the offensive in Hawija have been overshadowed by an independence referendum that Kurdish leaders plan to hold on Monday in areas including Kirkuk against the wishes of the federal government in Baghdad.
It is the latest in a string of setbacks for Daesh in Syria and neighboring Iraq.
After seizing swathes of Syria and neighboring Iraq in 2014, Daesh has seen the territory under its control fast diminish in recent months.
On Tuesday, Iraqi forces launched an attack up the Euphrates Valley against the other one of Daesh’s two remaining enclaves in Iraq.
And in Syria’s eastern province of Deir Ezzor, Daesh faces twin assaults — one by Russian-backed government troops and the other by US-backed fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces.
Further up the Euphrates, the SDF now controls 90 percent of the city of Raqqa, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said Wednesday.
The jihadists seized Raqqa in early 2014, making it their de facto Syria capital and a byword for the group’s most gruesome atrocities, including public beheadings.
Daesh is also thought to have used the city to plan attacks abroad.
Iraq brings all of remaining Daesh territory under attack
Iraq brings all of remaining Daesh territory under attack
Deaths mount in Gaza as ceasefire frays and key agreements stall
- At least 556 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes since a US-brokered truce came into effect in October
JERUSALEM: As the bodies of two dozen Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes arrived at hospitals in Gaza on Wednesday, the director of one asked a question that has echoed across the war-ravaged territory for months.
“Where is the ceasefire? Where are the mediators?” Shifa Hospital’s Mohamed Abu Selmiya wrote on Facebook.
At least 556 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes since a US-brokered truce came into effect in October, including 24 on Wednesday and 30 on Saturday, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Four Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza in the same period, with more injured, including a soldier whom the military said was severely wounded when militants opened fire near the ceasefire line in northern Gaza overnight.
Other aspects of the agreement have stalled, including the deployment of an international security force, Hamas’ disarmament and the start of Gaza’s reconstruction. The opening of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt raised hope of further progress, but fewer than 50 people were allowed to cross on Monday.
Hostages freed as other issues languish
In October, after months of stalled negotiations, Israel and Hamas accepted a 20-point plan proposed by US President Donald Trump aimed at ending the war unleashed by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack into Israel.
At the time, Trump said it would lead to a “Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace.”
Hamas freed all the living hostages it still held at the outset of the deal in exchange for thousands of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and the remains of others.
But the larger issues the agreement sought to address, including the future governance of the strip, were met with reservations, and the US offered no firm timeline.
The return of the remains of hostages meanwhile stretched far beyond the 72-hour timeline outlined in the agreement. Israel recovered the body of the last hostage only last week, after accusing Hamas and other militant groups of violating the ceasefire by failing to return all of the bodies. The militants said they were unable to immediately locate all the remains because of the massive destruction caused by the war — a claim Israel rejected.
The ceasefire also called for an immediate influx of humanitarian aid, including equipment to clear rubble and rehabilitate infrastructure. The United Nations and humanitarian groups say aid deliveries to Gaza’s 2 million Palestinians have fallen short due to customs clearance problems and other delays. COGAT, the Israeli military body overseeing aid to Gaza, has called the UN’s claims “simply a lie.”
Ceasefire holds despite accusations
Violence has sharply declined since the ceasefire paused a war in which more than 71,800 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The ministry is part of the Hamas-led government and maintains detailed records seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts.
Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people in the initial October 2023 attack and took around 250 hostage.
Both sides say the agreement is still in effect and use the word “ceasefire” in their communications. But Israel accuses Hamas fighters of operating beyond the truce line splitting Gaza in half, threatening its troops and occasionally opening fire, while Hamas accuses Israeli forces of gunfire and strikes on residential areas far from the line.
Palestinians have called on US and Arab mediators to get Israel to stop carrying out deadly strikes, which often kill civilians. Among those killed on Wednesday were five children, including two babies. Hamas, which accuses Israel of hundreds of violations, called it a “grave circumvention of the ceasefire agreement.”
In a joint statement on Sunday, eight Arab and Muslim countries condemned Israel’s actions since the agreement took effect and urged restraint from all sides “to preserve and sustain the ceasefire.”
Israel says it is responding to daily violations committed by Hamas and acting to protect its troops. “While Hamas’ actions undermine the ceasefire, Israel remains fully committed to upholding it,” the military said in a statement on Wednesday.
“One of the scenarios the (military) has to be ready for is Hamas is using a deception tactic like they did before October 7 and rearming and preparing for an attack when it’s comfortable for them,” said Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, a military spokesperson.
Some signs of progress
The return of the remains of the last hostage, the limited opening of the Rafah crossing, and the naming of a Palestinian committee to govern Gaza and oversee its reconstruction showed a willingness to advance the agreement despite the violence.
Last month, US envoy Steve Witkoff, who played a key role in brokering the truce, said it was time for “transitioning from ceasefire to demilitarization, technocratic governance, and reconstruction.”
That will require Israel and Hamas to grapple with major issues on which they have been sharply divided, including whether Israel will fully withdraw from Gaza and Hamas will lay down its arms.
Though political leaders are holding onto the term “ceasefire” and have yet to withdraw from the process, there is growing despair in Gaza.
On Saturday, Atallah Abu Hadaiyed heard explosions in Gaza City during his morning prayers and ran outside to find his cousins lying on the ground as flames curled around them.
“We don’t know if we’re at war or at peace,” he said from a displacement camp, as tarpaulin strips blew off the tent behind him.
