Coalition spokesman Colonel John Dorian had alleged on Saturday that the suspension was aimed at helping the forces to “regroup”.
“We believe that regrouping will take two days before continuing the advance towards Mosul,” he had said in Baghdad.
However, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said via the country’s al-Iraqiya television network that, “Since the beginning of the operation to date, Iraqi forces have liberated a large number of districts, villages, and towns in Nineveh Province, of which Mosul is the capital, and this trend is to continue as scheduled.”
The operation, he said, would last until the liberation of the province in its entirety.
The Iraqi premier said obstructive efforts by infiltrators and ill-wishers would not hamper the efforts to liberate Mosul.
Lieutenant General Abdul Wahhab al-Sa'adi and General Abdul Ghani al-Assadi, commanders with Iraq’s elite counter-terror force, have also rejected the remarks by the US-led coalition spokesman.
Together with dozens of its allies, the coalition has been pounding what it says are the positions of the terrorist group of ISIL since 2014. It is not clear if the strikes have done anything to dislodge the terrorists, however.
Reports have, meanwhile, pointed to alleged instances of obstruction or non-cooperation by the US-led coalition in the operations for Mosul, whose potential liberation would mean a severe blow to ISIL in Iraq.
The coalition reportedly stopped operations in the areas lying to the South of Mosul just as the push was gathering momentum since its launch on October 16.
Separately, some Iraqi Special Forces’ commanders said the coalition had withheld its support as the Mosul operation was going through one of its toughest embryonic stages.
Iraqi Armed Forces have also blasted the US-led forces for downing a drone belonging to its rapid reaction forces in Mosul’s general area at one point during the operation.
Also on Saturday, Iraqi Hashd al-Sha'abi forces opened a new front in the Mosul operations to cut ISIL's supply lines between the city and neighboring Syria.
The Hashd al-Sha'abi volunteer forces also seek to retake the town of Tal Afar on the Western side of the city, the only site where the Armed Forces are yet to be deployed to.
Mosul has been under ISIL control since 2014. The terrorist group has described the city as its so-called headquarters in Iraq.
