Final push to liberate western Mosul
BAGHDAD: Iraqi forces have launched the push for Mosul’s militant-held western half just over four months after the operation to retake the city from the Islamic State group officially began.
The fight for Iraq’s second-largest city – roughly split by the Tigris River into an eastern and a western section – has seen periods of swift territorial gains as well as weeks of gruelling urban combat with high civilian and military casualties. Iraqi and US-led coalition officials say they expect the fight for the west to be more difficult as it is denser, with narrower streets and home to more civilians.
In the days after Iraqi forces announced the start of the Mosul operation, Iraq’s special forces quickly retook a handful of largely empty villages along the city’s east that brought them to Mosul’s edge in early November. Once inside the city the tempo of operations changed dramatically, with barrages of car bombs inflicting heavy military and civilian casualties.
Iraqi forces repeatedly advanced too quickly into Mosul’s eastern neighbourhoods by day, only to face punishing counter-attacks by night. However as Iraqi forces closed in on the Tigris River, they began to see swifter progress.
Iraqi and coalition officials claim this was due to new tactics and better co-ordination between the disparate forces fighting in Mosul, but Iraqi troops on the ground say Islamic State defences simply began to thin.
As in the fight for Mosul’s east, Iraq’s special forces are expected to take the lead in the battle for the west. The US-led coalition will continue to closely back Iraqi forces with airstrikes and raids into Islamic State-held territory aimed at taking out key leaders and sowing unease in IS-held neighbourhoods.
There are now about 6 000 US troops in Iraq, whose militarised federal police, US-trained rapid response units and army would also participate.
Iraq’s government-sanctioned Popular Mobilisation Units – mostly Shia militias – have held the western edge of Mosul’s outskirts and pledged to participate if their help is needed. In the past, Iraq’s prime minister has sought to limit the involvements of PMU fighters in majority Sunni urban areas due to reports of abuses of civilians from human rights organisations.
Iraqi and coalition officials say the biggest difference in the fight for Mosul’s west will be the terrain: the western half of the city is home to some of Mosul’s oldest neighbourhoods with narrow streets that Iraqi forces won’t be able to drive armoured cars down. Even Iraq’s special forces – some of the most competent fighters in Iraq’s military – have so far largely fought the Mosul battle from inside their vehicles, rather than moving houseto-house on foot, in an effort to limit military casualties.
Eastern Mosul was declared fully liberated in January, but Iraqi officials have warned that Isis fighters have remained in Mosul’s east and will carry out attacks in neighbourhoods declared liberated.
The UN estimates 750 000 civilians are still living in Mosul’s west and has described conditions there as “siege-like”. Civilians who have escaped the western half of the city say food is running out. Aid bodies are now considering aid drops to Islamic State-held neighbourhoods.