Preparations
Following their defeats during Operation Phantom Thunder and Operation Phantom Strike in 2007 the insurgents lost their primary base of operations in Diyala province and were still under attack by Coalition forces as part of operation Phantom Phoenix. Having also lost their bases in Al Anbar and in Baghdad itself, remaining insurgent forces were forced to retreat towards northern Iraq and establish their main bases in Mosul, their last supply route through which they moved weapons, personnel and money from abroad into the country. Mosul also had strong strategic importance as a main logistics hub for al-Qaida in Iraq because of its size and location - sitting at crossroads between Baghdad, Syria, Turkey and Iran. The insurgents established a new base in Mosul and prepared for a 'decisive final battle' in the words of the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. If they lost their center in Mosul the insurgents would not be able to effectively fight anymore.
By mid-January 2008, the US 1st Combined Arms Battalion, 8th Regiment had been redeployed to Mosul from Baghdad, joining the 3rd Squadron of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment (3-3 ACR), who had been in the city since December 2007, when the 3ACR took over responsibility for Ninewa province from the 4th HBCT of the 1st Division. The city was split into two halves, with each unit responsible for security on their side. Two Iraqi Army battalions from the 2nd Division who had been deployed in Baghdad as part of Operation Imposing Law returned to Mosul. Also, in January 2008, the Iraqi Security Forces established the Ninewa Operational Command (NOC), to coordinate the various Iraqi Security Force units operating in the province, as well as liaise with Coalition forces operating in the province. A Sunni Arab, Major General Riyadh Jalal Tawfiq, previously commander of the 9th IA Division, was selected to command the NOC.
Read more about this topic: Ninawa Campaign
Famous quotes containing the word preparations:
“At the ramparts on the cliff near the old Parliament House I counted twenty-four thirty-two-pounders in a row, pointed over the harbor, with their balls piled pyramid-wise between them,—there are said to be in all about one hundred and eighty guns mounted at Quebec,—all which were faithfully kept dusted by officials, in accordance with the motto, “In time of peace prepare for war”; but I saw no preparations for peace: she was plainly an uninvited guest.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In all the important preparations of the mind she was complete; being prepared for matrimony by an hatred of home, restraint, and tranquillity; by the misery of disappointed affection, and contempt of the man she was to marry. The rest might wait. The preparations of new carriages and furniture might wait for London and the spring, when her own taste could have fairer play.”
—Jane Austen (1775–1817)
“The most evident difference between man and animals is this: the beast, in as much as it is largely motivated by the senses and with little perception of the past or future, lives only for the present. But man, because he is endowed with reason by which he is able to perceive relationships, sees the causes of things, understands the reciprocal nature of cause and effect, makes analogies, easily surveys the whole course of his life, and makes the necessary preparations for its conduct.”
—Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 B.C.)