Iraqi forces battle their way toward Mosul’s airport
Mattis flies to Baghdad to assess operations • Shi’ite cleric wants American forces to leave after battle
SOUTH OF MOSUL/BAGHDAD (Reuters) – US-backed Iraqi forces fought Islamic State fighters on Monday to clear the way to Mosul’s airport on the second day of a ground offensive on the jihadists’ remaining stronghold in the western side of the city.
Federal police and elite Interior Ministry units known as Rapid Response are leading the charge toward the airport, located on the southern limit of the Mosul, trying to dislodge the insurgents from the nearby hilltop village of Albu Saif.
The Iraqi forces’ plan is to turn the airport into a close support base for the onslaught into western Mosul itself.
Islamic State jihadists are essentially under siege in western Mosul, along with an estimated 750,000 civilians, after they were forced out of the eastern part of the city in the first phase of an offensive that concluded last month, after 100 days of fighting.
“They are striking and engaging our forces and pulling back toward Mosul,” Maj. Mortada Ali Abd of the Rapid Response units told a Reuters correspondent south of Mosul. “God willing, Albu Saif will be fully liberated today.”
Elite Counterterrorism Service units headed to front lines around the western side of Mosul, a city that is divided into two halves by the Tigris River.
Helicopters were strafing the Albu Saif hill to clear it of snipers, while machine-gun fire and rocket-propelled grenades could be heard. The advancing forces also disabled a car bomb – used by the terrorists to obstruct attacking forces.
The Iraqi forces have been advancing so far in sparsely populated areas and there were no families seen escaping. The fighting will get tougher as they get nearer to the city itself, and the risk greater for civilians.
The insurgents have developed a network of passageways and tunnels to enable them to hide and fight among civilians, disappear after hit-andrun operations and track government troop movements, according to residents.
The US commander in Iraq, Army Lt.-Gen. Stephen Townsend, has said he believes US-backed forces will recapture both of Islamic State’s major strongholds – Mosul and the city of Raqqa in Syria – within the next six months.
US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis arrived in Baghdad on Monday on an unannounced visit to assess the war operations.
“The coalition forces are in support of this operation and we will continue... with the accelerated effort to destroy ISIS,” he said, using an acronym for the terrorist group.
Mattis also said the US military was not in Iraq to seize the country’s oil, distancing himself from remarks by President Donald Trump.
An American serviceman died on Monday in a non-combat related incident outside the Iraqi city of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, the US-led coalition said, giving no further details.
Islamic State imposed a radical version of Islam in Mosul, banning cigarettes, televisions and radios, and forcing men to grow beards and women to cover from head to toe. Citizens who failed to comply risked death.
Capturing Mosul would effectively end the Sunni group’s ambitions for territorial rule in Iraq. The jihadists are expected to continue to wage an insurgency, however, carrying out suicide bombings and inspiring lone-wolf actions abroad.
About 160,000 civilians have been displaced since the start of the offensive in October, UN officials say. Medical and humanitarian agencies estimate the total number of dead and wounded – both civilian and military – at several thousand.
“This is the grim choice for children in western Mosul right now: bombs, crossfire and hunger if they stay – or execution and snipers if they try to run,” said Save the Children, an NGO that supports children’s rights, adding that children make up about half the population trapped in the city.
The involvement of many local and foreign players with diverging interests in the war heightens the risk that they could clash between themselves after Islamic State is defeated.
Influential Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who is openly hostile to Washington’s policies in the Middle East, on Monday said US troops should leave as soon as Mosul is captured.
“The Iraqi government has to demand that all occupying and so-called friendly forces leave Iraq in order to preserve the prestige and the sovereignty of the state,” he said.