Radical terrorists hold up Iraqi Army south of Mosul

QAYYARA/BAGHDAD: Daesh fighters on Wednesday kept up their fierce defense of the southern approaches to Mosul which has held up Iraqi troops on the southern front and forced an elite army unit east of the city to put its more rapid advance on hold.

Ten days into the offensive, Iraqi army and federal police units are trying to dislodge the militants from villages in the region of Shora, 30 km south of Iraq’s second largest city.

The frontlines in other areas have moved much closer to the edges of Mosul, the last major city under control of the militants in Iraq, who have held it since 2014.

The elite army unit which moved in from the east has paused its advance as it approaches built- up areas, waiting for the other attacking forces to close the gap.

“As Iraqi forces move closer to Mosul, we see that Daesh resistance is getting stronger,” said Maj. Chris Parker, a coalition spokesman at the Qayyara airbase south of Mosul that serves as a hub for the campaign.

The combat ahead is also likely to get more deadly as 1.5 million residents remain in the city and worst-case United Nations’ forecasts see up to a million people being uprooted.

In the worst case scenario, Grande said it was also possible that Daesh men could resort to “rudimentary chemical weapons” to hold back the impending assault.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday that his country was determined to clear Syrian Kurdish fighters from a strategic border town in northern Syria “as soon as possible.”

In August, Turkey began an ambitious military operation to back moderate Syrian opposition fighters to remove extremists from its border and stop the westward advance of Syrian Kurdish forces that Ankara considers “terrorists.”

“We are determined to clear the PYD terror organization from Manbij as soon as possible,” Erdogan said, referring to the Kurdish Democratic Union.

“They will have to get out, leave and go beyond the Euphrates. If they do not go, we will do what is required,” he told a group of neighborhood chiefs in Ankara.