Australian troops move closer to the frontline fight against Islamic State in Iraq
AUSTRALIAN troops have edged closer to the frontline fight against ISIS in northern Iraqi, with new units deployed to help in the battle for Mosul.
EXCLUSIVE
AUSTRALIAN troops have edged closer to the frontline fight in northern Iraqi, with new “mobile” units deployed to a remote base to work with Iraqi forces moving on and off the battlefield in Mosul.
The move comes as the United States confirm they have enacted a “tactical directive” update to allow coalition Special Forces, including from Australia, to embed at brigade level to directly call in air strikes and artillery fire on ISIS sites.
The move, a significant strategy shift introduced in December and discreetly amended last month, is designed to push forward what had become weeks of stagnant urban battles about ISIS-held Mosul stronghold, where Iraqi forces have been suffering significant loses.
This week alone more than 30 Iraqi security forces were killed or wounded in and about west Mosul where 2000 ISIS jihadist have been launching explosive-carrying drones and conducting four suicide car bombs a day against Iraqi Security Forces.
Rather than have to go through administrative chains of command in Baghdad, at the Iraqi Government’s behest coalition commandos in the field and air force forward air controllers can call in strikes in real time.
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The Americans, increasingly being drawn into the frontline fight, have confirmed the ability to embed with forward units to advise on planning attacks and call in strikes — such as on Mosul’s airport and sprawling Ghazlani military base — had empowered coalition forces and was speeding up the routing of ISIS.
Between having mobile coalition training teams working with the Iraqis closer to the Mosul frontline and deploying ‘joint tactical air controllers’ (JTACS) in forward operating positions, coalition commanders confirmed precision and an increased amount of responsiveness had been added to the war effort in the embattled country.
News Corp Australia was given exclusive access to a busy air base where ADF has now deployed mobile training teams from Task Group Taji to help re-skill Iraqis coming on and off the Mosul frontline.
The mobile teams are closer than Iraqi troops having to return to Taji, north of Baghdad.
The air base, which we are not naming for security reasons, is also a busy hub from which drones are deployed and special forces from a variety of coalition nations notably America, Australia, the UK and Spain pass through en-route to undisclosed locations a few kilometres from Mosul and about the restive Anbar province where ISIS have begun a resurgence.
The area about the base was only cleared of ISIS militants in October and the threat of attack exists, thereby requiring a high level of security jointly by US and Iraqi forces. But its location, north of traditional training base in Taji where 300 Australian soldiers are based, is also its strength.
“The nature of the mobile training team and mobile team concept is to reach an area outside of Taji, where Iraq forces haven’t got the means or availability of time to go back and train there,” head of mobile unit Captain Kyle Handreck said.
He said they were helping the Iraqi improve their shooting, preparation for street-by-street fighting and “lethality on the battlefield”.
Major Tim Fricker said the Taji training program had evolved from baseline skills to now include more advanced programs including urban warfare and officer leadership programs.
He said a lot of the soldiers they were training were extremely junior and required to step up, because of the conflict a lot sooner than an Australian soldier would. The adversary he said was also getting smarter and cunning to attack Iraqis with tools such as drones, never before encountered in theatres.
“Due to the conflict pressure is on to get good junior commanders into the field and that’s what we are doing here,” he said.
“We’re constantly provided information from the front on what the situation is and how we can best fight the adversary and that leads us back here adapting our design for training to meet that requirement. So we’ve now enhanced the training ability to include significant periods of instruction on urban operations and tactics.”
A STARK REMINDER
When Captain Kyle Handreck celebrated his first birthday, coalition forces were preparing to invade Iraq with one million troops in the biggest military deployment since the D-Day Landings.
Today, 26 years to the day since that invading force began the Iraqi conflict, the Australian Army officer was standing on the very battlefield shoulder-to-shoulder with the former enemy teaching them to defeat a new foe.
The adage my enemy’s enemy is my friend is not lost on the soldier nor the fact the conflict in this nation has been going on longer than he and many of those young Diggers around him have been alive.
“Yep it’s an interesting paradox to read what happened then to where we are now out here at the moment,” the Melbourne-born artillery man said as he read an original copy of Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph-Mirror delivered to the war theatre.
“What’s interesting is in the current course we are training soldiers that have been in the army for more than two decades so they were part of Saddam’s army back in the day, some for a few months but others most of their lives.
“It is interesting to hear their stories, it is a stark reminder that some of these guys have been here for this country’s being gripped in conflict for almost three decades.”
Capt Handreck is leading a mobile Taji Training Group that since May 2015 has trained at Taji north of Baghdad 19,000 Iraqi Security Force soldiers and police to help them combat the common enemy of Islamic State and protect Iraq from future insurgencies.
Corporal Chris Hoffman, 26 from Adelaide, was also one-year-old when Iraq invasion happened. The former bakers apprentice decided to join the army, proud to wear the Australian uniform and help another nation fight a common enemy.
“We are here to help the Iraqis take back their country, we are not here to fight the war for them but to make them better to fight the war, stabilise the country and region,” he said as he flicked through the newspaper and marvelled at the bulky kit soldiers back then had to carry into battle.
Capt Handreck added: “Our role in the world and the one that we signed up for is to help out and give people freedom and no matter when you look at since this newspaper was published, we’ve answered the call from those oppressed and need our helping hand. The enemy might be different but we are still here to help.”
Originally published as Australian troops move closer to the frontline fight against Islamic State in Iraq
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