Iraq attack to free ISIS bastion

Forces will liberate West Mosul from terror: Iraq PM

Oreij, Iraq: Iraqi forces launched an offensive on Sunday on jihadists defending Mosul’s west bank, in what could be the most brutal fighting yet in a four-month-old operation on the country’s second city. They swiftly retook at least five villages and set their sights on Mosul airport.

Oreij, Iraq, Feb. 19: Iraqi forces launched an offensive on Sunday on jihadists defending Mosul’s west bank, in what could be the most brutal fighting yet in a four-month-old operation on the country’s second city.

They swiftly retook at least five villages and set their sights on Mosul airport, which lies just south of the city, marking a new phase in Iraq’s largest military operation in years.

The Islamic State group has put up stiff resistance to defend Mosul, the city where its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed a “caliphate” in 2014.

“Our forces are beginning the liberation of the citizens from the terror of Daesh,” Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said in a short televised speech, using an Arabic acronym for ISIS. “We announce the start of a new phase in the operation. We are coming, Nineveh, to liberate the western side of Mosul,” he said, referring to the province of which Mosul is the capital.

A top army commander then announced that forces led by federal police units retook villages south of Mosul, including Athbah, which leaves them within striking distance of the airport. “We launched our operation at 7:00 am (0400 GMT)... We are heading towards the airport,” said Abbas al-Juburi of the interior ministry’s elite Rapid Response force.

Military vehicles blared patriotic songs as heavy bombardment and shooting could be heard in the distance.

ISIS militants are essentially under siege in western Mosul, along with an estimated 6,50,000 civilians, after they were forced out of the eastern part of the city in the first phase of an offensive that concluded last month.

Coalition aircraft and artillery have continued to bombard targets in the west during the break that followed the taking of eastern Mosul.

The US, which has deployed more than 5,000 troops, leads an international coalition.