When the
U.S.Army,Kurdish Peshmerga and Assyrian NPU fighters battled to free the
Christian town of Telsquf from the
clutches of Daesh.
In one of the biggest offensive by Daesh (the Arabic acronym
for IS) for months, their fighters broke through Kurdish and Assyrian NPUs(
Nineveh Plain Protection Units) defences in the deserted Christian village
of Telsquf, 17 miles from the militant stronghold of
Mosul.
The attack started at 5.30 am on Tuesday, 3 May 2016 when
Daesh blasted through Kurdish and NPU defences by using three truck bombs
followed by bulldozers, and infantry. When the village defences were breached,
Daesh fighters burst into the village like a raging fire. They were backed up
by snipers, heavy machine gun and mortar fire. Once in the town, they set
several buildings on fire to create a smoke screen against allied bombing. They
managed to overrun the town by dawn and reached the Kurdish encampment two
miles behind the front line. However, they were unaware that U.S. military
advisers were in the camp. A fire fight started between the attackers and the
defenders. Navy Seal, Charles Keating IV was part of the force sent in to
rescue the advisers. The highly decorated seal was killed in the ensuing
battle.
In a press conference at the American embassy in Baghdad,
Coalition spokesman Col. Steve Warren said: “The Quick Reaction Force, of which
Keating was a part, was able to evacuate the advisers relatively rapidly within
the first couple of hours. But it was during this operation, he noted, that
Keating was struck by direct fire at 9:32 am local time. He added: “Two medical
evacuation helicopters were called and able to evacuate Keating within an hour
of him being hit, but his wound was not survivable.”
When Peshmergae
reinforcements and NPU fighters arrived, they were met by sniper fire from
Daesh elements hiding in buildings. Intense house to house fighting continued.
The air cracked with machine gun fires and mortars. American fighter jets and
drones launched over 22 strikes on Daesh positions. The air attacks destroyed
20 vehicles and killing 58 fighters. NPU suffered three injuries they were
Fouad Georgis, Wahab Khalid and Rafid Matei. Every one fought so hard to win back
the village and succeeded, but the costs were high: what they gained was a
village in ruins.
Daesh has confirmed that the ‘Farook Army’ spearheaded the
attack. This was considered one of the elite units of Daesh. It is composed of
foreign fighters, mainly from Chechnya and Russia. The fighters are highly
trained .A reliable security source confirmed to the Iraqi newspaper ‘Al Sabbah
Al-Jadeed’ that by listening to the conversation of some Daesh elements, they
seemed distraught at loosing so many men and equipment in a single engagement.
This unit was assigned to defend Mosul, but Daesh high command decided to
through it into this battle which resulted in the death of 110 fighters and the
destruction of 50 vehicles.
In his comments to Ankawa.com, Athra Kado, NPU leader, said:
“after we regained possession of the town Daesh fighters tried to escape from
the western edges of the town, but they were met with our fighters who managed
to kill three of them. Peshmerga forces managed to kill four attackers and two
suicide bombers blew themselves up. Three prisoners were also taken.”
The chiming and chanting of bells that once ascended from
various ends of the village have been silenced; the smell of death had spread
into every corner of Telsquf.In the summer of 2014, Telsquf residents fled
their village when Daesh swept through the region. In late 2014, Daesh withdrew
from the village, which ended up under Kurdish Peshmerga control.
