After declaring victory in the nine-month battle to oust the Islamic State group from Mosul, the Iraqi security forces have, \u201ca little bit of breathing room to concentrate on the rest of the country and get on with the campaign of eliminating ISIS in Iraq,\u201d the top Marine officer in Iraq said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Marine Corps Times talked to Brig. Gen. Robert \u201cG-Man\u201d Sofge recently about what happens after Mosul and how U.S. forces helped Iraqi forces achieve their most important victory to date. Sofge is currently the director of the Combined Joint Operations Center in Baghdad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After declaring victory in the nine-month battle to oust the Islamic State group from Mosul the Iraqi security forces have \u201ca little bit of breathing room to concentrate on the rest of the country and get on with the campaign of eliminating ISIS in Iraq,\u201d the top Marine officer in Iraq said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Marine Corps Times talked to Brig. Gen. Robert \u201cG-Man\u201d Sofge recently about what happens after Mosul and how U.S. forces helped Iraqi forces achieve their most important victory to date. Sofge is currently the director of the Combined Joint Operations Center in Baghdad. Excerpts of the interview, edited for clarity and space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Q: What is next in the fight against ISIS in Iraq?<\/b> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
ISIS is in Tal Afar; ISIS remains in the western desert and certainly remains in the Hawija pocket \u2014<\/em> north of Baghdad and south of Mosul. Where the Iraqis go on a campaign, I think, is to be determined at this point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But wherever they go, we\u2019ll go with them and work to annihilate ISIS by, with and through the Iraqi forces, who performed brilliantly Mosul in a tough, tough fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Q: We\u2019ve heard reports that Iraq\u2019s elite Counter Terrorism Service suffered 40 percent casualties during the battle for Mosul. Do have any information about how many members of the CTS were killed and wounded?<\/b> <\/p>\n\n\n\n I can\u2019t talk to it off the cuff. They are a fine fighting force and they were very brave and took a significant number of casualties \u2014<\/em> as did the federal police and so did the Iraqi army. All pieces of the Iraqi security forces were engaged in different parts of this battle. I can\u2019t speak specifically to the numbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Q: Will the Counter Terrorism Service need to rest and regroup before the next major battle?<\/b> <\/p>\n\n\n\n I think all of the forces are understandably going to have to reset briefly after the tough fight in Mosul. I think what we\u2019ll see in the weeks ahead is that kind of behavior as they restock their ammo, take stock of where they are physically with manpower, repair their vehicles and replenish their fuel stocks for the next stop on the campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Q: How are efforts to clear Mosul of mines and booby traps proceeding?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s a lot of that going on. The city has been liberated, but that doesn\u2019t mean that every IED has been found or taken care of. In one vignette, just recently, I believe it was the Iraqi army back clearing found six IEDs in one house. There was even an IED found underneath a baby\u2019s crib.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This kind of back-clearance will be slow and thorough. It\u2019s already started with the forces that are there, but the government of Iraq \u2014<\/em> my understanding \u2014<\/em> is going to bring more forces to bear to help with that clearance to make the city safe for the people of Mosul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Q: The U.S. military has faced some criticism for a spike in civilian casualties in Mosul. Did the coalition change any policies or rules of engagement in the latter months of the fight to make it easier launch air and artillery strikes?<\/b> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Our process for strikes has remained the same and is as stringent as it has always been. We do everything in our power to avoid civilian casualties while precisely and effectively killing the enemy. I can speak with some authority: There was no change in the rules or the very strict criteria required to release ordnance in this country. The idea that we\u2019ve loosened the ROE in order to more aggressively fight the enemy is not an accurate statement. There have been a couple of unfortunate incidents, but zero civilian casualties is our goal each and every day. We haven\u2019t loosened that up in any way, shape or form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Q: What steps did the U.S. take to avoid inflicting civilian casualties in Mosul?<\/b> <\/p>\n\n\n\n First of all: We\u2019ve got to have a positive identification on a target or we\u2019re not going to strike. Second of all: The strike has to be proportional to the threat. We also do collateral damage estimates on what might be damaged in and around this strike if we execute it. Finally, we run it through the team to make sure we\u2019re in complete compliance with our rules of engagement and the laws of armed conflict. Once all of that is satisfied, we go to the government of Iraq to seek their permission for this strike. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Q: As ISIS was pushed back in Mosul, did it become harder for U.S. air and artillery support to avoid hitting civilians?<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n It was challenging to employ that amount of firepower in that small of a space. We dialed it back and kept dialing it back until eventually we weren\u2019t using any aircraft to strike, only direct fire weapons. And then eventually direct fire weapons were, frankly, too powerful to fight in those closed quarters. It became those last, terrible yards for the Iraqi security forces to really go in by hand. Brutal fighting. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The top U.S. Marine in Iraq talks about the campaign to destroy ISIS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":63308,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":12,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2885],"class_list":["post-31070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":{"subheadline":"The top U.S. Marine in Iraq talks about the campaign to destroy ISIS.","legacy_arc_id":"4KIIGAQMVBA5LL4DPZNPPRI3E4","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/2017\/07\/20\/after-mosul-whats-next-for-the-fight-in-iraq\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n