ISIL resistance stalls Iraqi bid for west Mosul

Advance hit by heavy rain, snipers and artillery fire

MOSUL // Iraqi forces battling ISIL yesterday faced tough resistance from snipers and mortar rounds as they tried to advance on Mosul’s Old City and a bridge across the Tigris river in their campaign to retake the western part of the city.

Progress by rapid response units was slowed by heavy rain yesterday, but they were only 100 metres from the Iron Bridge, which connects the Old City with the eastern side of Mosul, military officials said.

Since starting the campaign last October, Iraqi forces with the US-led coalition’s support have recaptured eastern Mosul and about 30 per cent of the west from militants who are outnumbered but fiercely defending their last stronghold in Iraq.

Federal police and rapid response brigades, an elite interior ministry unit, said at the weekend that they had entered the Bab Al Tob area of the Old City, where fighting was expected to be toughest because of its narrow alleys where armoured vehicles cannot pass. But the advance there stalled yesterday.

“Due to the bad rainy weather, operations have been halted for now. We are facing stiff resistance from the Daesh fighters with sniper shots and mortars,” said a rapid response unit officer.

Troops exchanged fire with snipers while trying to drag blinds made of blankets and curtains across streets to obscure their movements.

Heavy explosions later hit a hotel where ISIL gunmen had been returning fire. “We are moving on the old bridge and then we will free that area. Hopefully in a few days we’ll liberate the west side of Mosul,” said an Iraqi captain.

Federal police forces also fighting in areas close to the Iron Bridge were battling pockets of militants in Bab Al Tob district and conducting houseto-house searches, said the federal police.

The Iraqi military said elite counterterrorism service troops managed to retake west Mosul’s Al Nafut district.

As many as 600,000 civilians are caught with the militants inside Mosul, which Iraqi military forces effectively sealed off from the remaining territory that ISIL controls in Iraq and Syria.