- US, Iraqi troops push toward Mosul’s center
- Plans to send heavier weapons to CIA-backed Syrian rebels stall
- Rogin: Will Clinton fulfill her promise to increase US involvement in Syria?
- General Allen + Lister, Fred Hof, Max Boot on next steps in Syria
- Pentagon expects Mosul push to unlock trove of intel on ISIS
- NYT and WSJ reports on the Mideast that awaits the new President
- WaPo editorial and Hassan on the fight against ISIS after Mosul
- US Special Ops accelerate killings of ISIS leaders
Kurdish forces claimed new advances against Islamic State in the battle for Mosul on Sunday, but the extremist fighters hit back with a third straight day of attacks in the northern city of Kirkuk and a new strike in western Anbar province. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
A fire set by Islamic State militants at a sulfur mine near the city of Mosul in recent days sent plumes of noxious gases over the battlefield, sickening hundreds of civilians and forcing Iraqi and U.S. troops to wear protective masks, health and military officials said on Saturday. – Washington Post
Iraqi Shiite militias said Friday they were set to join the battle to dislodge Islamic State from the northern city of Mosul, adding a potent but controversial fighting force to the effort. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Thousands of people who lived for the past two years under the rule of the militants have begun to escape their villages as a huge Iraqi force closes in on the northern city of Mosul, free now to tell their stories of brutality and privation and near-death escapes. Most, though, are Sunni Muslims, unable to celebrate just yet as they face questions from the authorities and the country at large about their years living alongside the Sunni militants, as well as any ties to the jihadists, whether real or just perceived. – Washington Post
A dispute between Iraq and Turkey has emerged as a dramatic geopolitical sideshow to the complicated military campaign to retake Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, from the Islamic State. – New York Times
Iraq’s prime minister on Saturday rejected the possibility of Turkish involvement in the current campaign to liberate Mosul from the Islamic State, just a day after Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter announced that he had reached an “agreement in principle” with Turkish officials that would allow Turkey to participate in the battle. – Washington Post’s Checkpoint
The battle for Mosul has seen snipers, car bombs, missiles, oil-filled moats waiting for the torch, secret village-to-village tunnels, and a burning sulfur plant — and yet U.S. war leaders here warn that this is the light stuff. With each advance of Iraqi, Kurdish, and American forces, ISIS resistance is hardening. – Defense One
ISIS rounded up and killed 284 men and boys as Iraqi-led coalition forces closed in on Mosul, the terror group's last major stronghold in Iraq, an Iraqi intelligence source told CNN. - CNN
[A]s U.S. and Iraq forces get underway with the battle for Mosul, the real threat of the extremist group effectively deploying chemical weapons is extremely limited, according to numerous top military officials. – Military Times
For the first time in two years, Hussam Matteh prayed in his ancestral Christian homeland after Iraqi security forces recaptured Bartella this week — the first Iraqi Christian town to be wrested from the grip of jihadi militants. – Financial Times
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter visited Irbil on Sunday for a closer assessment of the fight against the Islamic State group in northern Iraq and to hear from Kurdish leaders whose forces launched a new offensive in the operation to wrest Mosul from the militants' control. – Associated Press
Kurdish fighters said they had taken the town of Bashiqa near Mosul from Islamic State on Sunday as coalition forces pressed their offensive against the jihadists' last stronghold in Iraq. - Reuters
If local fighters in Mosul can be persuaded to drop their allegiance to Islamic State, there is a chance that the battle can be brought to a more speedy conclusion, and that could have major implications for the future of Iraq. - Reuters
Editorial: Ultimately, victory over terrorist forces in Iraq will require a sustained American presence, both military and civilian, extending well beyond the liberation of Mosul. The president should be laying the groundwork for that now, with Mr. Abadi and with U.S. allies, so that his successor can avoid Mr. Obama’s signal mistake in Iraq: a premature and self-defeating withdrawal. – Washington Post
Hassan Hassan writes: The war against the Islamic State is unwinnable without filling the political and security vacuum that now exists in too much of Iraq. The Islamic State’s eventual retreat from Mosul will be a much-needed victory for the country. But unless the government in Baghdad enables Iraqi Sunnis to fill that void, it will once again emerge from the desert. – New York Times
As rebel-held sections of Aleppo crumbled under Russian bombing this month, the Obama administration was secretly weighing plans to rush more firepower to CIA-backed units in Syria….Neither approved nor rejected, the plan was left in a state of ambiguity that U.S. officials said reflects growing administration skepticism about escalating a covert CIA program that has trained and armed thousands of Syrian fighters over the past three years. – Washington Post
A burst of fighting in the flash-point Syrian city of Aleppo on Sunday appeared to shatter a unilateral Russian cease-fire, signaling a resumption of the government’s offensive to seize rebel-held areas there. – Washington Post
The top United Nations human rights official on Friday called the weekslong bombardment and siege of rebel-held parts of Aleppo “crimes of historic proportions” that had turned the ancient Syrian city into a “slaughterhouse.” – New York Times
The Admiral Kuznetsov, Russia’s lone, rather geriatric aircraft carrier, steamed through the English Channel toward the Mediterranean Sea on Friday in the Kremlin’s latest attempt to reassert its lost superpower status. – New York Times
Amid the diplomatic storm over the Syria war, the United Nations has paid millions of dollars to the owners of a private Russian airline company who were barred from doing business with the organization 10 years ago over bribery charges. – New York Times
Hawks in Congress have long pushed the White House to consider more aggressive options in Syria from cruise missile strikes to no fly zones to humanitarian corridors. But during an off-the-record briefing on Capitol Hill on Thursday, a staffer for Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) floated a distinctly bolder approach. “What about assassinating Assad?” the aide said, according to three individuals in the room. – Foreign Policy’s The Cable
An international inquiry has found that Syrian government forces were responsible for a third toxic gas attack, according to a confidential report submitted to the United Nations Security Council on Friday. The finding sets the stage for a showdown between Russia and Western members of the Council over how to respond. - Reuters
Syrian state media and opposition activists say government forces and their allies have captured a high point in the city of Aleppo where fighting with rebel groups resumed over the weekend. – Associated Press
The entire territory of Syria must be "liberated," Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman said in remarks televised Saturday, dismissing demands for Syrian President Bashar Assad's departure as "thoughtless." – Associated Press
Josh Rogin reports: Throughout the campaign, Hillary Clinton has pledged to ramp up U.S. action not only to fight the Islamic State, but also to end the Syrian civil war. If she does what she’s promising, the risky effort could engulf the first year of her presidency and test the limits of the United States’ reduced influence in the region. The question is whether she will follow through. – Washington Post
General John Allen, USMC (Ret.) and Charles Lister write: Bashar al-Assad is not the solution to the Syrian crisis, and he is the least-qualified possible partner in a fight against terrorism, having spent much of the past 16 years aiding and abetting al-Qaeda and, it would appear, the Islamic State as well. Action certainly presents risks, but to allow events to continue to unfold as they are means raising the cost yet further for a future, inevitable U.S. intervention. – Washington Post
Frederic Hof writes: The impending defeat of Daesh in Syria should not be wasted. Russia and its client regime have shut the door to diplomatic progress. Another should be opened, whether they like it or not. – Defense News
Max Boot writes: Moscow ultimately acquiesced in the Dayton Accords, and it likely would acquiesce in a settlement in Syria if the U.S. shows that it is serious about ending the war and ousting Assad. So far it hasn’t. All that Obama and Kerry have offered is a lot of empty verbiage without doing the hard work of laying the foundations for a durable peace. That task will await their successors. - Commentary