The highly anticipated offensive towards Mosul by the Iraqi combined coalition came to a grinding halt just after the first few days of fighting. Once again, Iraqi government troops ordered a full retreat from an offensive that started sometime last week when the ISIS opposition pushed back according to Fox News.
The Iraqi army, which was heavily criticized for abandoning posts -- and weapons -- as ISIS moved in on Mosul in June 2014, had begun taking small villages on the outskirts after Baghdad announced the campaign March 24.
"The Iraqi Army commenced an assault on ISIS strongholds around Mosul, but when ISIS fired back, the Iraqi Army ran away and the assaults ended," a western, Iraq-based security and defense specialist told FoxNews.com of last week's failed offensive. "So now they are regrouping and rethinking their next options."
U.S. Army Maj. Jon-Paul Depreo, said some of the Iraqi army troops were unfamiliar with the territory which is why they made the decision to call off the campaign. "These [Iraqi army] forces aren't from that area necessarily, so they're learning the area," Depreo told reporters in Baghdad.
This is not the first time that the Iraqi fighters have decided to call it quits. Two years ago the Iraqi Army, which was built on the back of American lives and billions of U.S. tax dollars, dropped their U.S.-issued weapons and fled their posts as ISIS approached Mosul, not only abandoning their posts but allowing their advanced weapons to fall into militant hands.
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The Iraqi Army reportedly has around 4,500 troops lined up for the Mosul campaign, augmented by untold numbers of local militia and Kurdish forces. The army is equipped with U.S.-supplied Humvees and a top-of-the-line cache of artillery, anti-tank missiles, air craft, infantry weapons and ammunition.
No date has been set for when troops will try again as it will be more likely to happen many months from now and possibly not even this year.
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