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Iraqi Kurdish leaders are considering offering territory seized by their forces in the offensive to recapture Mosul from Isis as a bargaining chip in a new push for independence from Baghdad.

As Iraqi forces continue their advance towards key Isis-defended districts in west Mosul, attention is turning to what northern Iraq will look like once the jihadi group is routed. Ministers from the Kurdistan regional government (KRG) believe that one option might be offering to Baghdad land their peshmerga forces have recaptured from Isis in return for self-rule, the pinnacle of Kurdish ambition for decades.

Speaking from his office in the Iraqi Kurdistan capital of Erbil, foreign minister Falah Mustafa said that, although the Mosul alliance of Iraqi and peshmerga troops was on course to quash Isis in Iraqs second city, the time had arrived for Kurdistan to move forward by itself.

Its important that the right to self-determination is put on the table we need to put an end to this unhealthy relationship [with Baghdad]. We are neither fully integrated into Iraq, nor are we fully independent and sovereign.

We need to sit down to discuss the future of Erbil and Baghdad, including independence. Now is the time to discuss a new formula for this relationship. What we have has failed.

Bolstering Kurdistans newfound impetus for self-rule is the conviction that the Trump administration might be willing to support Kurdish dreams of independence. Already President Masoud Barzani of the Kurdistan region has seriously discussed independence with Mike Pence, the US vice-president.

Mustafa said: The preliminary contacts we have had prior, during and after the US election are encouraging. We believe we have a good opportunity to further develop our ties. Soon there will be [more] contact with our leadership and the US leadership. Its all encouraging. We are optimistic.

His initiative comes amid calls for Sinjar, inhabited by Kurdish-speaking Yazidis, and the Nineveh Plains, a largely Christian area, to both eventually become autonomous regions along the lines of the KRG.

For the KRG itself, one potential pawn in its campaign to cut loose from Baghdad is the huge swathe of land peshmerga forces have liberated from the advance of Isis . Iraqi towns recaptured by Kurdish forces include Bashiqa, and scores of villages and thousands of square miles of territory including much of Kirkuk province, northern Diyala and Sinjar. In total, the Kurds have increased the land mass under their control by up to 40%.

Peshmerga military sources point out that such territory was won at the cost of Kurdish lives. One officer said that, in one assault alone on the former Isis stronghold of Bashiqa, 31 peshmerga fighters were killed. As of last week, 1,682 had died and 9,787 were injured during its gruelling 30-month war against Isis, an intensive campaign that has exacted a punishing toll on the regions fragile economy.

Karim Sinjari, the minister of the interior and acting minister of peshmerga affairs, said: The war costs a lot. The martyr families have to be taken care of, the wounded need to be treated.

Another issue will be claiming the spoils of the victory in Mosul itself. Although the peshmerga have agreed not to enter the city, Kurdish forces were instrumental in securing and holding large areas of territory around the northern metropolis before allowing the Iraqi army to complete the mission.

When asked what leverage Erbil was prepared to use in independence talks, Mustafa said that of course land was a factor to be considered. It is an important issue. Responsibility, territory, the oil issue, finances, the airspace all need to be discussed. We want to start this dialogue with Baghdad peacefully, recognising that we will always have a strategic relationship, he said.

Among most of the Kurdish norths 5.5 million population, severing ties with Iraq cannot come soon enough, with the sense that Iraqs central government no longer even pretends to care for Kurdish rights. Baghdad wants us to be subordinate, subjugated. We reject that. The deal with a federal Iraq has failed, said Mustafa.

He added that if Baghdad refused to recognise their arguments, they may stage a referendum to legitimise their campaign for self-rule. A previous unofficial referendum held in 2005 found that 99% were in favour out of the two million who turned out.

But it is the peshmergas military successes against Isis that ministers hope will provide timely influence in the quest for statehood. Donald Trump who has vowed to crush Isis has been impressed with the US-backed peshmergas triumphs against Isis; they have been credited with halting the Islamist militants 2014 surge across the country. The KRG points out that such success was achieved in spite of Baghdad, rather than because of its support.

In the two years we are fighting Daesh [Isis], all we got from Baghdad is some ammunition. They give almost nothing to the peshmerga, not their salaries, their costs, nothing, said Sinjari. But Sinjari also warned that, once Isis has been routed from Iraq, the dynamic that saw many Sunni Muslims initially welcome the group as liberators from the Shia-dominated forces of Baghdad might not easily be vanquished.

Daesh will not finish quickly. Their territory will be defeated, but here [pointing to his head] they will stay. We have to solve the reason why Daesh have come. If we dont, another will come. Al-Qaida finished, then Daesh came. Daesh finished, another comes.

Fifty-five miles west from Sinjaris office the frontlines in Mosul the latest reports reveal that Iraqi security forces are continuing to advance deeper into the city with attacks mounted against jihadi defences on several fronts. However, Sinjari warned that progress might slow down as Iraqi troops encroached upon the citys labyrinthine historic centre and the fight descended into a slog.

In the old city you cant use tanks or armoured vehicles, so itll be a fight from house to house. But Daesh have lost many of their fighters in the eastern side, thousands. Their strongest force has been killed, especially the foreign fighters.

The minister also warned of dirty tactics, with Islamists using some of the 750,000 civilians trapped in the densely populated city as human shields.

In the eastern side of the city cleared last month residents are starting to trickle back, although the KRG is still hosting 1.8 million internally displaced Iraqis and Syrian refugees from the regions upheaval and are calling for urgent humanitarian support from the international community.

Sinjari, describing a recent trip to a local hospital, said: In every bed they had four kids, three internally displaced people, and one local. You can see how much pressure the issue is having on our services.

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Kurds offer land for independence in struggle to reshape Iraq - The Guardian

A senior commander said Iraqi militarized police captured a neighborhood in western Mosul on Sunday morning amid clashes with Islamic State militants.

Maj. Gen. Haider al-Maturi of the Federal Police Commandos Division told The Associated Press that his troops entered the Tayaran neighborhood.

Al-Maturi said it is now "under their full control."

Al-Maturi said at least 10 suicide car bombs were deployed by ISIS militants. Nine of the car bombs were blown up before reaching their targets. The tenth killed two policemen and wounded five.

Al-Maturi also said his forces arrested two militants an Iraqi and a foreigner who speaks Russian.

Further west, Iraqi special forces captured the Mamun neighborhood by early Sunday afternoon, Brig. Gen. Haider Fadhil of the special forces said. Fadhil said ISIS militants attacked the advancing troops with more than 15 suicide car bombs, but all were blown up before hitting the troops.

"The neighborhood is fully liberated," he said. "We are clearing it up and beefing up fortifications."

Up to 3,000 people fled from the Mamun neighborhood Sunday morning, according to Iraqi special forces Brig. Gen. Salam Hashed, who oversees a screening center south of Mosul. Hashed said just over 2,500 people fled the previous day.

According to the U.N. figures, about 750,000 civilians are believed to be trapped in their houses in western Mosul, one of several challenges expected to slow the advance of the Iraqi troops.

Another complication is western Mosul's old and narrow streets, which will force Iraqi soldiers to leave the relative safety of their armored vehicles.

Western Mosul is the last significant urban area IS holds in Iraq. The city is split roughly in half by the Tigris River.

Mosul fell to ISIS in the summer of 2014, along with large swaths of northern and western Iraq.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Iraq: Officials recapture new neighborhood in Mosul - Fox News

(Erbil) Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) forces are detaining men and boys who have fled the fighting in Mosul even after they have passed security clearances, Human Rights Watch said today. The KRG forces have detained over 900 displaced men and boys from five camps and the urban area of Erbil between 2014, when people fleeing the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) began arriving, and late January 2017. Detainees were held for up to four months without any communication with or update for their families.

The Khazir camp in northern Iraq housing thousands of people internally displaced by the fight against ISIS. Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) forces have detained over 900 displaced men and boys from five camps and the urban area of Erbil between 2014, when people fleeing ISIS began arriving, and late January 2017.

2016 Belkis Wille/Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch interviewed the relatives of eight of these men and boys who had been taken from one of the camps on suspicion of affiliation with ISIS. Human Rights Watch also interviewed the relative of a displaced man detained by National Security Service officials at a checkpoint. The relatives said that KRG and Iraqi forces did not inform them of their detained relatives whereabouts or facilitate any communication with the detainees.

Displaced families told us they had trusted the security screening process and assumed their loved ones would be back within a day or two, said Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. Now, months later, some of those same families are telling us that they would rather have stayed in Mosul and risked dying in an airstrike than to have their husband or son disappear.

In one case, KRG forces in December 2016 detained a homeopathic doctor who told them that he had been forced to treat ISIS troops. Asayish, KRG security forces, officers initially questioned and then released him in November, after a neighbor of the doctor, who was in the same camp, told the KRG forces that the doctor was innocent of any alliance with ISIS. His wife went to the Asayish office in the camp to ask about him, but said an officer told her, Go away and stop asking about him.

In another case, the Asayish took a 14-year-old boy, Mahmoud, in mid-November after picking up his 22-year-old cousin, who had the same name as someone allied with ISIS. When the authorities realized the name mix-up, they freed the cousin but kept the 14-year-old. She said that when the officers came to take Mahmoud, she heard one officer asking the rest why they were taking such a young kid. Since we have been at the camp, whenever he had to go to the bathroom, he asked me to walk him. He is a young, scared kid. I am so worried about him, she said, crying. This was only one of three times Asayish officers in the camp picked up the cousin because of his name.

And in a third case, the Kurdish authorities detained a young man who had gone to the camp marketplace in November to try to buy a cellphone. When his father tried to find out what happened to him, he was told: Dont ask, if he didnt do anything wrong, then he will be fine. If he did do something wrong, then stop asking.

Human Rights Watch gathered reports of over 900 detentions from various sources, including camp-based actors, local communities, and camp residents. It was unable to verify how many of the detainees are still being held by KRG officials, whether any of them were allowed to communicate with their family members, and whether the families were informed of their whereabouts in any cases. Human Rights Watch has previously documented 85 other cases in which relatives of terrorism suspects said they were in the dark about the fate and whereabouts of relatives detained by KRG or Iraqi forces from camps and local communities. Detainees were held for up to four months without any communication with or update for their families.

Iraqi and KRG authorities should make efforts to inform family members, either directly or indirectly via local police or camp management, about the location of all detainees. The authorities should make public the number of fighters and civilians detained, including at checkpoints, screening sites, and camps during the conflict with ISIS, and the legal basis for their detention, including the charges against them. KRG authorities should ensure prompt independent judicial review of detention and allow detainees to have access to lawyers and medical care and to communicate with their families.

On October 17, 2016, the Iraqi central government and KRG, with the support of an international coalition,announced the start of military operations to retake Mosul, causing over 150,000 residents to flee their towns and villages. Many ended up in camps for displaced people under the control of Asayish.

In late January 2017, Human Rights Watch spoke to 10 relatives and witnesses in the Khazir camp, 35 kilometers west of Erbil, who said they had all fled Mosul in November and December 2016. During their journey, they had been screened for possible ISIS-affiliation at multiple locations, including Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) checkpoints, and upon arrival at the camp by Asayish, and were cleared. But they said that weeks or months later, security forces took the six men and two boys from inside the camp, between two days and two-and-a-half months before Human Rights Watch spoke with the families. They all said that they did not know where the men and boys are being held and that they had not been able to contact them, despite their efforts to request information from the Asayish officers at the camps, who told them to stop asking about their whereabouts.

In addition, one man who fled Mosul with his cousin, Faris, in early January 2017, said that National Security Service officials detained Faris at an Iraqi military checkpoint. The man said that one of the Iraqi security forces at the checkpoint was an old acquaintance of theirs, but had fallen out with them many years before when he had refused to let Faris marry his younger sister. The man who fled Mosul said the other man pointed to Faris and told the National Security Service officials that he was affiliated with ISIS, at which point they detained him, leaving his cousin no other choice but to leave for the camp. He and Fariss sister said they had heard nothing official about his whereabouts since then, and that he never had any affiliation with ISIS.

Enforced disappearances, which occur when security forces detain and then conceal the fate or whereabouts of a detainee, placing them outside the protection of the law, are violations of international human rights law, and can be international crimes. Depriving detainees of any contact with the outside world and refusing, when asked, to give family members any information about their fate or whereabouts can be indications that detentions are enforced disappearances.

Dr. Dindar Zebari, chairperson of the KRGs High Committee to Evaluate and Respond to International Reports, provided Human Rights Watch with an explanation of KRG security force screening and detention processesfor displaced persons in late October. He stated that KRG authorities are committed to informing the families of detainees of the process and status but, due to a lack of personnel and financial resources this task may at times be a difficult one.

Iraqi and KRG authorities should make sure that their efforts to keep civilians safe from ISIS attacks dont undermine basic rights, Fakih said.

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Iraq/Kurdistan Region: Men, Boys Who Fled ISIS Detained | Human ... - Human Rights Watch

Iraqi tribesmen hold national flags and posters bearing a portrait of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan crossed out during a protest against the continued presence of Turkish troops in northern Iraq, in the southern city of Basra on October 16, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

Iraq has askedSaudi Arabia to break its silence on the presence of Turkish troops on its soil as the kingdom's hawkish foreign minister visits Baghdad to bring rocky relations out of a longfreeze.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari on Saturdayreceived his Saudi counterpart Adel al-Jubeir. This is the first such visit by a chief diplomat from the kingdom since 2003.

Turkey sent around 2,000 troops into northern Iraq in December 2015, triggering a diplomatic crisis and promptingIraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to warn that Ankara risked triggering a regional war.

According to a statement issued by the Iraqi Foreign Ministry, Ja'afari told Jubeir that Saudi Arabia must break its silence on the presence of Turkish troops in Iraq, the IRNA news agency reported from Baghdad.

"Ja'afari stressed the need for Riyadh's efforts to encourage the Turks into leaving the Iraqi land, stating that despite Arab and international consensus on opposition to Turkish troops, they still remain in the Iraqi territory," the report added.

Iraq and Saudi Arabia havetriedto improve strained ties after relationswere cut following ex-dictatorSaddam Hussein's 1990 invasion of Kuwaitbut the road to normalization has been rocky.

Thamer al-Sabhanbecame the first Saudi ambassador to Iraq in a quarter centuryin January 2016 but had to leavethe same year after Baghdad demanded he be removed following his remarks about Hashed al-Sha'abi.

Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization) forces have played a key role in the fight against Daesh. Ja'afari was one of the most vocal critics of Saudi Arabia at the time and issued several strongly-worded statements against the kingdom and Jubeir himself.

He conveyed to Jubeir both directly on the sidelines of a global conference on the anti-Daeshwar last year and in a statement Iraq's "annoyance" over what he called "unacceptable interference."

On Saturday, Ja'afari told Jubeir that "Iraq's policy is based on expanding relations with all countries of the world but it will not allow any meddling in its domestic affairs," the Foreign Ministry statement said.

The foreign minister also said Iraq "does not meddle in the internal affairs of other countries and has no interest in getting involved" in the lines drawn between some regional countries, possibly referring to Saudi Arabia's rivalry with Iran.

An Iraqi government official said on Saturday that there was an opportunity for Baghdad to bring Tehran and Riyadh together.

"The whole region is heading towards compromise and Saudi Arabia sees Iraq as an important player to have on its side," he said. "Iraq's neutrality could make it a ground for Iranian-Saudi rapprochement."

The official stressed that despite intense pressure from the street to take a strong stand against Saudi Arabia, Abadihad "never indulged in aggressive rhetoric against Saudi Arabia."

Saudi Arabia is very unpopular among most Iraqis and often accused of providing direct support to Daesh terrorists who took over a third of the country in 2014.

Saudi Arabia nominally supports the fight against Daesh but Iraq and other partners have argued it needs to do more to help durably defeat Daesh and its ideology which has roots in the kingdom where Wahhabism is freely preached and promoted.

The kingdom has been accused of having both financially and ideologically contributed to the extremism and sectarianism, which has been taking its toll on its northern neighbor.

"Iraq's power lies in unity and integrity among its nation and the Iraqi people have proven that they stand united against terrorism and for preserving their territorial integrity," Ja'afari said on Saturday.

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Bilateral ties

In August 2016, Riyadh withdrew Ambassador Sabhan, but instead of naming a new one, seconded Abdulaziz al-Shammari as charg daffaires at its diplomatic mission in the Iraqi capital.

Prime Minister Abadi also received Jubeir and his accompanying delegation, a statement from his office said.Both sides "discussed cooperation in various fields, including the fight against the Daesh gangs," it said.

Abadis office also said, "Jubeir congratulated Iraq on the victories achieved against Daesh and pledged Saudi Arabia's support to Iraq in fighting terrorism."

Jaafari and Jubeir, meanwhile, expressed interest in reparation and enhancement of the bilateral ties.

Jaafari said his country sought best Saudi ties geared towards confrontation with common threats, normalization of trade relations, facilitation of Saudi trips by Iraqi nationals, and establishment of direct flights between the two capitals.

Jubeir insisted on the need for bilateral visits, and said there were many elements, promoting the betterment of bilateral ties.

He also claimed that Riyadh treated all Iraqi sects alike and was in favor of unity and calm in the violence-stricken country.

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Iraq to Saudi Arabia: End silence on Turkey incursion - Press TV

SOUTHWEST ASIA, Feb. 25, 2017 U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria yesterday, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

Officials reported details of yesterdays strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.

Strikes in Syria

Coalition military forces conducted 12 strikes consisting of 30 engagements against ISIS targets in Syria:

-- Near Shadaddi, five strikes engaged four ISIS tactical units and destroyed three fighting positions, two vehicles, an ISIS headquarters, a storage facility and a vehicle-borne bomb.

-- Near Raqqa, five strikes destroyed an artillery system, a mortar system, a rocket system, a watercraft, a weapons storage facility and a chemical weapons facility.

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, a strike destroyed two oil wellheads.

-- Near Palmyra, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a vehicle and a tactical vehicle.

Strikes in Iraq

Coalition military forces conducted nine strikes consisting of 95 engagements against ISIS targets in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraqs government:

-- Near Huwayjah, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a heavy machine gun and a logistics node.

-- Near Qaim, a strike destroyed a homemade explosives cache and a vehicle-bomb factory.

-- Near Beiji, two strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed five ISIS-held buildings, three vehicles, a fighting position and a front-end loader.

-- Near Mosul, five strikes engaged three ISIS tactical units and an ISIS sniper unit; destroyed nine fighting positions, eight mortar systems, five ISIS-held buildings, four command-and-control nodes, three vehicle-bomb facilities, three tactical vehicles, two vehicles, two artillery systems, two anti-air artillery systems, a rocket-propelled grenade system, an unmanned-aerial-vehicle storage facility, a front-end loader, a vehicle-bomb staging area and a supply cache; damaged 12 supply routes and four ISIS-held buildings; and suppressed 22 mortars and an artillery system.

Part of Operation Inherent Resolve

These strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to destroy ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The destruction of ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria also further limits the group's ability to project terror and conduct external operations throughout the region and the rest of the world, task force officials said.

The list above contains all strikes conducted by fighter, attack, bomber, rotary-wing or remotely piloted aircraft; rocket-propelled artillery; and some ground-based tactical artillery when fired on planned targets, officials noted.

Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike, they added. A strike, as defined by the coalition, refers to one or more kinetic engagements that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single or cumulative effect. For example, task force officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIS vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against a group of ISIS-held buildings and weapon systems in a compound, having the cumulative effect of making that facility harder or impossible to use. Strike assessments are based on initial reports and may be refined, officials said.

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Counter-ISIS Strikes Continue in Syria, Iraq > U.S. DEPARTMENT ... - Department of Defense