The chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq disputed a published report that said the new American commander of the anti-Islamic State coalition predicted the battle to retake Mosul will begin early next month.
Air Force Col. John Dorrian insisted on Thursday his boss, Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, did not tell the Wall Street Journal the move on Mosul would begin before early October.
“I think there might be some clarification on that quote,” Dorrian said. “He didn’t say early October, I can tell you that.”
Dorrian reverted to the standard response when the U.S. is asked about the timing of the long-awaited Mosul offensive, which is to say that Iraq is in control of the timeline and will decide precisely when to launch the campaign.
“I’ve discussed this with General Townsend,” Dorrian told a Pentagon news conference, “what he said is the key — this is an Iraqi-driven process.”
Dorrian said while Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has said publicly he would like the offensive to begin before the end of the year, and the U.S. supports that, it promises to be a tough fight.
“The battle for Mosul is five to six times as large as Ramadi in both area and in the number of people that are there. So there are going to be a lot of planning considerations and a lot of troops that have to be trained in order to do that.”
The U.S. is still training some 6,500 Iraqi forces for the Mosul operation, with the goal of having a 3-1 to 5-1 advantage over the several thousand Islamic State fighters holding the northern Iraqi city.
The U.S. has advised Iraq that it will require eight to 12 brigades of attacking forces.
In the last two months, the U.S.-led coalition has targeted more than a dozen Islamic State leaders in Mosul alone, including airstrikes against safe houses where military commanders, weapons facilitators, and other Islamic State leaders were thought to be.
