AMERICAN AND BRITISH PEOPLE OPPOSE USING TROOPS IN IRAQ

Baghdad, 4 Rabi’ul Akhir 1436/25 January 2015 (MINA) – There is a strong opposition among American and British people to using military troops on the ground in Iraq to fight the ISIL Takfiri terrorists, says an analyst.

“There is enormous domestic opposition in America, in Britain, in other countries to putting any troops on the ground in any case,” John Rees of Stop the War Coalition told Press TV on Saturday.

Rees made the comments when asked about recent remarks by a top US military commander about a joint effort by the US and Iraq to retake the northern city of Mosul, which is controlled by the ISIL militants, Middle East Monitor (MEMO) quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting, Sunday.

Gen. Lloyd Austin, head of US Central Command, has said the US and Iraq plan to retake Mosul through conducting an assault by summer.

The two countries are currently selecting and training military units and aim to cut supply lines to the ISIL militants, the top American commander in the Middle East told the Wall Street Journal.

He said a coalition of Iraqi military fighters including Kurdish Peshmerga forces would be ready by the spring or early summer to begin the offensive.

However, Rees said “It’s hard to see whether or not this military operation is successful”. Even “(there is) a growing skepticism about whether or not the current level of military operation is in any case working, it does not seem to be.”

On Friday, Peshmerga forces launched a rocket attack on Mosul which was the first of its kind since the terrorists overran Mosul last summer. 20 Grad missiles were fired into the city, a Kurdish officer said on Saturday.

Peshmerga fighters have recently reclaimed around 500 square kilometers of territory after launching a ground operation northwest of Mosul. The new gain would cut ISIL’s main supply line from the city to the west.

ISIL started its campaign of terror in Iraq in early June 2014. The heavily-armed militants took control of Mosul before sweeping through parts of the country’s Sunni Arab heartland. (T/P002/P3)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)