Iraqi army in fresh assault on Mosul
Fierce attack on IS stronghold
IRAQI army units advanced from south-east Mosul towards a bridge across the Tigris in the city centre yesterday, in an attack that could give fresh impetus to the hard-fought, seven-week battle for Islamic State’s (IS) northern Iraq stronghold.
Campaign commander Lieutenant-General Abdul Ameer Rasheed Yarallah was quoted by Iraqi television as saying troops had entered Salam Hospital, less than 1.5km from the Tigris River running through the centre of Mosul.
If confirmed, that would mark a significant advance by the army’s Ninth Armoured Division, which had been tied up for more than a month in deadly, close-quarter combat with IS fighters on the south-east edges of the city.
A colonel in the armoured division said yesterday’s assault aimed to push towards the river and ultimately reach Mosul’s Fourth Bridge, the southernmost of the five bridges spanning the Tigris which splits the city in two.
The bridge, like three others, has been hit by US-led air strikes to prevent IS sending reinforcements and suicide car bombs across the city to the eastern front, where counter-terrorism troops have spearheaded the army campaign.
The last and oldest bridge, built of iron in the 1930s, was targeted on Monday night, two residents said. The structure was not destroyed, but the air strikes made two large craters in the approach roads on both sides.
Militants immediately began to fill the craters, the residents said.
“I saw Daesh using bulldozers to fill the craters with sand and by midday vehicles managed to cross the bridge normally. I drove my car to the other side of the bridge and saw also Daesh vehicles crossing,” said a taxi driver.
Mosul is by far the largest city under IS control and defeating its fighters there would roll back the self-styled caliphate it declared in Iraq and Syria 2014 after seizing large parts of both countries.
About 100000 Iraqi soldiers, security forces, Kurdish peshmerga fighters and mainly Shia paramilitary forces are participating in the overall Mosul campaign that began on October 17, with air and ground support from a US-led coalition.
Although it has made advances inside eastern Mosul, the army says it is battling the toughest urban warfare imaginable – facing hundreds of suicide car bomb attacks, mortar barrages, sniper fire and ambushes launched from a network of tunnels.
Its advance has also been slowed by the presence of more than 1million residents in the city.
The army colonel said yesterday’s offensive aimed to overwhelm the militants, who have put up stiff resistance but are hugely outnumbered by the attacking forces.
“We are using a new tactic – increasing the numbers of advancing forces and also attacking from multiple fronts to take the initiative and prevent Daesh fighters from organising any counter-attacks,” the colonel said.
He said the four armoured division regiments, whose tanks and heavy armour have struggled to adapt to street-by-street fighting, had been reinforced by an infantry regiment.
They were aiming for the Wahda neighbourhood, a sprawling south-eastern district that extends some distance into the city. Wahda could serve as a launchpad for an attack on the Fourth Bridge, he said.
It was not immediately possible to confirm whether troops had reached Salam hospital, deep inside Wahda neighbourhood, but one person in Mosul contacted by telephone said he had heard from other residents that the army had advanced close to it.
The army push in the south-east comes as federal police units stationed west of the Tigris prepare a separate advance towards the airport.
Residents have reported mortar fire and increased air strikes in the western half of the city.