Fierce counter-attacks place Iraqi troops under pressure

MOSUL: Iraqi forces are suffering fierce counter-attacks in areas of Mosul recaptured from the Islamic State, soldiers say, and are barely holding the main government compound that they triumphantly declared cleared earlier this week.

Police units have made a rapid push into the city over the past two weeks, reaching its main government buildings on Tuesday. But forces were soon ambushed there in what one police officer described as a “well-planned trap”, while their grip on other neighbourhoods they claim to control appeared tenuous during a recent trip to the city.

In the western neighbourhood of Dindan, about half a mile from the government compound, forces with Iraq’s emergency response division, an elite unit of the police, came under frequent mortar fire two days later. Soldiers ducked behind walls to avoid snipers.

Captain Waleed Ibrahim said Iraqi forces had lost control of two streets that morning after the militants deployed car bombs in a counter-attack. Helicopters flew low overhead, strafing Islamic State positions.

Police forces had not properly cleared the surrounding buildings, and the Islamic State positioned snipers on their roofs.

Yasiri said his unit fled in their Humvees, but others were trapped inside the government compound as police forces sent reinforcements to break the siege.

“We don’t control the compound at the moment,” he said, adding that the interior minister arrived on Wednesday night expecting to tour the area, only to be told that it hadn’t been properly secured.

“He was angry and left,” Yasiri said. – Washington Post