Mosul battle in final stages, says Abadi
— Government forces set their sights on reaching the Grand Mosque in Mosul’s Old City on Wednesday and the prime minister said the battle to drive Daesh from its last urban stronghold in Iraq was reaching its final stages.
Losing the city would be a huge blow to Daesh as it has served as the group’s de facto capital.
Troops were also concentrating on capturing the Iron Bridge linking eastern Mosul with the Old City on the western side of the Tigris river, where Daesh fighters are preparing to make a last stand.
Heavy fighting was reported around the Mosul Museum by journalists and combatants. A Daesh suicide car bomb exploded near the museum.
The intense combat, much of it street-by-street, marked a decisive stage in the battle for Mosul which started on October 17 last year.
“Our forces are advancing towards their targets. The main objective will be seizing the Iron Bridge and after that we will start an operation to seal off the area near the bridge to clear it from Daesh fighters,” said a spokesman for the Interior Ministry’s Rapid Response units, one of the elite forces spearheading the offensive.
“We will be heading towards the old market in Bab Al Tob and advance deeper to reach the location of Mosul’s Grand Mosque.”
The capture of the mosque would be a huge symbolic victory as well as a concrete gain but that may take some time yet. The attacking forces faced sniper and mortar fire as well as the threat of suicide car bombs and grenade-dropping drones. Iraqi officers said cloudy weather was hampering air cover on Wednesday morning.
Securing the Iron Bridge would mean Iraqi forces hold three of the five bridges in Mosul that span the Tigris, all of which have been damaged by the militants and US-led air strikes.
In Baghdad, Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi said: “Daesh become day after day surrounded inside a tight area and they are in their final days.”
Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday night, he warned the insurgents that they must surrender or be killed although he also pledged to treat the militants’ families fairly. “Let me be very clear, we will preserve families of Daesh who are civilians but we will punish the terrorists and bring them to justice if they surrender,” he said. “They are cornered and if they will not surrender they will definitely get killed.” However, many hard days of fighting could still lie ahead as forces try to make headway in the streets and narrow alleyways of the Old City. Daesh fighters have booby-trapped houses, and government forces will also be fighting amongst civilians, ruling out the extensive use of air and artillery support.
Residents have streamed out of western neighbourhoods recaptured by the government, many desperately hungry and traumatised by living under Daesh’s hardline rule.