Iraqi forces advance with more strikes on ISIL fighters in Mosul
Security chiefs say extremists suffered heavy losses and drone footage shows many fleeing to the city’s western districts
BAGHDAD // Iraqi forces advanced yesterday after declaring the latest phase in their offensive on eastern Mosul, stepping up efforts to reclaim ISIL’s last major stronghold in the country.
Security chiefs said several neighbourhoods had been taken, with the bodies of ISIL fighters seen lying on the streets and drone footage showing others retreating.
“The second phase of liberating the left bank in Mosul was launched, and our forces began advancing towards Al Quds neighbourhood,” said Staff Lt Gen Abdulghani Al Assadi, a senior officer withn Iraq’s counter-terrorism service.
Mosul, now the last Iraqi city in which ISIL still holds significant territory, is split by the Tigris River, with the east side referred to as the left bank and the west as the right.
“Our forces clashed with the enemy and there is resistance,” Lt Gen Al Assadi said, while confirming that forces on the northern and southern fronts were also advancing.
Elite forces have reconquered several parts of eastern Mosul since launching an operation to recapture the northern city from militants on October 17, but ISIL still occupies the city’s west.
Iraq’s federal police commander, Raed Shaker Jawdat, said “the enemy’s line of defence has fallen back” inside the city.
“The streets of the Al Salam, Al Intisar, Al Wahda, Al Falestin and Al Quds neighbourhoods are strewn with the bodies of Daesh fighters,” he said.
Police had also advanced deep into the district of Jadida Al Mufti.
The commanding chief of the offensive, Staff Lt Gen Abdulamir Yarallah, announced “the liberation of the Al Quds 1 district” late last night. He said police drones had spotted ISIL fighters retreating to the city’s western neighbourhoods via a pedestrian bridge badly damaged in the fighting.
Centcom, the US military command in the Middle East, said the Washington- led coalition fighting ISIL had disabled “the last bridge crossing the Tigris River inside Mosul” this week at the Iraqi government’s request. Residents reported on Wednesday that the bridge had been disabled on Monday.
The new push in the battle for Mosul comes after progress slowed to a crawl in the past few weeks. After two months of fighting, Iraqi prime minister Haider Al Abadi said last week that the army had decided to review battle plans and pause to reduce losses.
ISIL has targeted the army with car bombs on at least 900 occasions in the streets of Mosul since October 17, according to Mr Al Abadi.
The group overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in 2014, but Iraqi forces backed by US-led air strikes have since regained much of the territory they lost to the militants.
The US- led coalition carried out three strikes on Wednesday that notably targeted an ISIL “tactical unit”, Centcom said.
Mr Al Abadi had pledged that Mosul would be recaptured by the end of the year – a goal that is now out of reach, as operations in western Mosul have yet to begin.
Earlier this week, the prime minister said it would be three months before ISIL was elimi- nated in Iraq.
But even if all territory held by the extremists is recaptured, the group will probably turn increasingly to insurgent tactics.
Last week, an ISIL triple car bombing on a market in Gog- jali a few kilometres east of Mosul killed at least 23 people.
The army retook Gogjali from the militants in early November after more than two years of ISIL occupation.