Iraqi Army can’t retake Mosul, says Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Barbero.

Will Iraqi troops be prepared to fight child soldiers?

Iraqi Army can’t retake Mosul, says Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Barbero. (Wapo).

The Army general who oversaw training of Iraqi troops says the rushed mission to retake Mosul from the Islamic State this spring is doomed.

Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Barbero said Mosul is booby-trapped with explosives and controlled by thousands of suicidal fighters. Evicting them will take a coordinated ground and air campaign with precise intelligence on enemy locations. 

It is a combat mix that Iraqis simply lack the ability to execute in accordance with an announced U.S. Central Command timeline to attack Mosul in April or May.

“They could be ready to attack. I doubt they’d be successful,” Mr. Barbero told The Washington Times. “Two months is clearly inadequate to think that they could start offensive operations of any effect in Mosul.”

The Islamic State has had eight months to hunker down in Mosul, which was hostile to the Shiite-run government in Baghdad even before the takeover by the extremist group, also known by the acronyms ISIS and ISIL.

“Urban fighting is the most sophisticated, complex fight there is,” Mr. Barbero said.

“Multidimensional. It’s direct fire. Indirect fire. Precision fires. If you want to gain support from the occupants, the Sunnis, you can’t go in there and just run with it. So it has to be a very, very precise application of firepower against an enemy that has no regard for the population and will indiscriminately use violence to hold on. There’s no way the Iraqi Security Forces will be ready for this kind of fighting.” Hmmm......It will be 'Stalingrad' in the desert with the Iraqi army as the Germans.Read the full story here.