The battle for the Iraqi city of Hawija, 28 miles west of Kirkuk, has been postponed several times. Disagreements around military operations have delayed the capture of the city from Islamic State (IS) militants. Military sources from the Joint Operations Command told Al-Monitor that Hawija will be next after the fall of Mosul.

In late January, Iraqi member of parliament Shakhwan Abdullah, a member of parliament’s Security and Defense Committee, promised that Hawija operations would start soon. Yet the timeline for retaking Hawija, which had been set for October, has been delayed more than half a year now.

Hawija is one of the last main IS bastions on the road leading to Mosul. The Sunni-dominated town, home to some 450,000 residents, sits in the Tigris River valley. It is near the city of Qayyarah, where Iraqi forces have set up a military base. “Hawija has always been a security problem,” said US Col. (Retired) Harry Schute, a military adviser to the Kurdistan Regional Government. According to Schute, the city is an important IS stronghold and a pro-Saddam Hussein bastion. It was also the site of major Sunni anti-government protests that were crushed violently by the Iraqi army in early 2013, resulting in dozens of deaths.

Yet despite its symbolic and strategic importance, military operations aiming at retaking the city have been delayed due to disagreements between the Kurds and Iraqi forces. “The rationale was that Iraqi forces and the Popular Mobilization Units [PMU] would attack from the three sides under their control and the Kurds from another side,” said Schute. According to Kurdish military commander Kemal Kirkuki, who is responsible for the Kirkuk front line, there was a plan to take Hawija; however, the battle was postponed after a meeting with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Hadi al-Ameri from the PMU. Abadi and Ameri wanted to launch the attack from the area liberated by the Kurds, said Kirkuki.