Iraqi forces at ‘gate’ of southern Mosul
Strategically important Al Buseif hills above city airport also in coalition hands
AQRAB CHECKPOINT, IRAQ // Iraqi forces backed by jets and helicopters fought their way towards southern Mosul yesterday and prepared to take on ISIL’s stronghold in the city’s west bank. The new push in the fourmonth-old operation to retake Mosul has sparked fears for 750,000 trapped civilians, who risk being killed if they try to flee and starvation if they stay.
Federal police forces reached the Aqrab checkpoint on the road from Baghdad, a spot that marks the southern entrance to Mosul and from which the city is clearly visible.
“It is very important because it is considered to be Mosul’s southern gate,” Lt Gen Haider Al Mtoury, of the federal police, said at the checkpoint.
He said his forces faced ISIL car bombs and suicide bombers as they advanced to within 2 kilometres of the city. Iraqi forces also secured a strategic area known as the Al Buseif hills near Mosul airport, on the southern approach to the city.
Meanwhile, Hashed Al Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation) paramilitaries pushed north on their desert front further west and reached the road linking Mosul to Tal Afar town, which is still under ISIL control.
That will further isolate what senior US officials yesterday said were the 2,000 ISIL fighters left inside Mosul.
Iraqi forces are supported by the US-led coalition that has delivered more than 10,000 munitions aimed at ISIL targets since the start of the Mosul operation. The new Pentagon chief, James Mattis, made a brief visit to Baghdad yesterday to show support for the Iraqi forces.
Before landing in the Iraqi capital, he said the US was not about to plunder Iraq’s oil reserves. US president Donald Trump repeatedly said while campaigning, and since his election, that America, whose troops occupied Iraq for years, should have taken the oil.
“All of us in America have generally paid for gas and oil all along, and I am sure that we will continue to do so,” Mr Mattis said. “We are not in Iraq to seize anybody’s oil.”
The commander of the 60-nation US- led coalition, which has more than 9,000 soldiers in Iraq, said he expected the coalition to stay in the country after Mosul is retaken.
The assault launched on Sunday marks a new phase in the operation that began on October 17 to retake Mosul, the extremists’ last major stronghold in the country.
Its recapture would deal a death blow to the “caliphate” ISIL chief Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi proclaimed in the city in 2014, but it has been shrinking as anti-ISIL forces advanced.
But it took Iraq’s most seasoned forces, the elite Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS), two months to retake east Mosul. Commanders and experts believe the city’s west bank of the Tigris river could prove even harder to retake, with the Old City’s narrow streets necessitating perilous raids.
ISIL also “likely has stronger support within western Mosul, and the ISF [Iraqi security forces] are more likely to encounter populations that are wary or hostile”, said Patrick Martin, Iraq analyst at the Institute for the Study of War. CTS forces, who have urban warfare experience, were seen heading to the western side of Mosul yesterday.
They are expected to breach west Mosul once other forces have moved up to the city limits.
The operation to retake Mosul has sparked fears for 750,000 trapped civilians