Iraqi forces make fresh gains in tough areas of southeast Mosul
NEW THREAT: US official says IS is using hobby drones to bomb Iraqi forces
BAGHDAD: Iraqi forces drove back IS militants in southeastern Mosul on Thursday, making gains in an area where advances have been particularly tough, the military said in a statement.
Rapid response units from Iraq’s federal police advanced in the Sumer district, which lies on the eastern bank of the Tigris River, and also in neighbouring Sahiroun, the statement reported by state television said.
Forces have pressed forward much more slowly in that area than units in the east and northeast, who have taken control of a number of neighbourhoods in the past week.
The army’s elite Counter Terrorism Service (CTS), has spearheaded advances in eastern Mosul.
The US-backed campaign to recapture Mosul, IS’ last major stronghold in Iraq, has pushed ahead with renewed vigour since the turn of the year after troops got bogged down inside the city in November and December.
New tactics, including one night raid, better defences against suicide car bomb attacks and improved coordination between the army and security forces, have helped forge momentum, US and Iraqi officers say.
The ultra-hardline group’s loss of Mosul would probably spell the end for the Iraqi side of its self-styled caliphate, which it declared after sweeping through parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014.
Meanwhile, a US commander said on Wednesday that IS militants are using small commercial drones to attack Iraqi security forces in the battle for Mosul.
Colonel Brett Sylvia, who commands an “advise and assist” US unit in Iraq, said IS fighters are attaching small munitions to quadcopters in an attempt to kill local forces as they retake Mosul.
“They are small drones with small munitions that they’ve been dropping,” Sylvia said.
While the munitions were no larger than “a small little grenade,” he said, that was enough to do what “Daesh does, and that’s just, you know, indiscriminate killing,” he said, using an Arabic acronym for IS.
The group’s use of small drones is not new, Sylvia said, though initially they were mainly used for reconnaissance. “They are (now) using them to drop munitions as Iraqi forces push into Mosul,” he said.
He added that US-backed local troops have been able to bring down many of the drones, making them “much less effective than they were.”
Tens of thousands of allied troops launched a huge offensive on October 17 to retake Mosul and areas around it.