Iraqi forces make gains in Mosul

These are the dying breaths. They (daesh militants) are completely surrounded. First Lt. Nawfal Al Dhari, of Iraq forces

mosul — US-backed Iraqi forces pressed an advance on neighbourhoods under Daesh control in Mosul on Monday as they seek to dislodge fighters entrenched in a central mosque before the holy month of Ramadan.

Seven months into the campaign to recapture Mosul, militants are besieged in its northwestern corner, home to the historic Old City centre and the medieval Grand Al Nuri Mosque, where their black flag has been flying since June 2014.

“If we advance this quickly we can finish it in days,” First Lieutenant Nawfal Al Dhari said at a house turned into a temporary base in the western Islah Al Ziraie district, retaken by Iraqi forces three days ago.

“These are the dying breaths. They are completely surrounded.” He said the momentum was with Iraq’s elite Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) despite continued resistance from Daesh fighters in the group’s last bastion in Iraq.

“If you trap a cat in a room, it will scratch,” he said.

Military commanders and intelligence officials say they aim to take control of the mosque before Ramadan starts at the end of this month even if there are still pockets under militant control.

“Our advance on a vast front has stunned the enemy and, God willing, we will achieve victory before Ramadan and announce the liberation of Mosul and people of Mosul from dirtiness of Daesh” Lieutenant General Othman Al Ghanmi, chief of staff, said in a video distributed by the Defence Ministry.

He was speaking on a visit to the frontlines in western Mosul.

“The more they are besieged the harder they fight. They have nowhere to go,” soldier Faris Sallal said at another house in the Islah Al Ziraie district, where intermittent gunfire and the occasional boom of artillery echoed.

Flies swarmed over the charred remains of a Daesh militant lying near a motorbike on a street in the district. Parked in the garage of another house on the same street was an armorplated car. —