Iraq army traps Daesh militants
mosul (Iraq) — US-backed Iraqi army units on Wednesday took control of the last major road out of western Mosul that had been in Daesh’s hands, trapping the militants in a shrinking area within the city, a general and residents said.
The army’s 9th Armoured Division was within a kilometre of Mosul’s Syria Gate, the city’s northwestern entrance, a general from the unit said by telephone.
“We effectively control the road, it is in our sight,” he said.
Mosul residents said they had not been able to travel on the highway that starts at the Syria Gate since Tuesday. The road links Mosul to Tal Afar, another Daesh stronghold 60km to the west, and then to Syria.
The closing of the westward highway meant that Daesh are besieged in the city centre, said LtGen Abdul Wahab Al Saidi, the deputy commander of the Counter Terrorism Service (CTS), deployed in the southwestern side.
Units from the US-trained division battled sniper and anti-tank fire as they moved eastwards, through Wadi Al Hajar district, and northward, through Al Mansour and Al Shuhada districts where gunfire and explosions could be heard.
These moves would allow the CTS to link up with Rapid Response and Federal Police units deployed by the riverside, and to link up with the 9th Armoured Division coming from the west, tightening the noose around the militants.
“Many of them were killed, and for those who are still positioned in the residential neighbourhoods, they either pull back or get killed are our forces move forward,” Saidi said.
Two militants lay dead near the field command of the CTS, in the Al Mamoun district which looked like a ghost town. A few hundred metres away, a car bomb was hit by an air strike.
The few families who remained in Al Mamoun said they were too scared to leave as the militants had booby-trapped cars.
Women cooked bread over outdoor ovens while men gathered on street corners as helicopters flew overhead strafing suspected militant positions further north.
One of two buses parked nearby had its roof shorn off. Residents buried a 60-year-old woman who was killed on Tuesday when she stepped on an explosive device while trying to flee. Several thousand militants are believed to be in Mosul among a remaining civilian population. —