‘ISIL has two options – to surrender or to die’
Iraqis move into core of Mosul’s Old City in final push
MOSUL // Iraqi forces yesterday began a push towards a historic mosque in Mosul’s Old City.
They face desperate ISIL fighters who have prepared a last stand using the narrow lanes, booby- trapped houses and mustard gas.
Iraqi special operations forces were 200 to 300 metres away from the medieval Grand Al Nuri Mosque, where ISIL leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi declared the group’s “caliphate” in 2014.
Together with the army and paramilitary police units, they began inching into the city’s historic core on the west bank of the Tigris river on Sunday.
With many streets too narrow for vehicles, soldiers are mostly advancing on foot and a commander admitted that fighting would be tough and long.
ISIL has hundreds of fighters left to defend around a square mile of territory, and is holding thousands of civilians hostage as human shields.
“I can’t tell you how long it will take,” said Lt Gen Abdul Ghani Al Assadi, the field commander of the special operations forces.
“The advance will be slow because of the civilians and the difficulties of fighting in the Old City.
“Daesh are cornered and cannot run. They have two options – to die or to surrender.”
Military intelligence suggests that about 800 militants are still fighting in Mosul, said Maj Hishar of Iraq’s 15th Division.
Of these, 300 are believed to be foreigners who have a reputation as skilled and fanatical fighters.
This means ISIL is able to defend the Old City with far greater manpower than it sent to other areas of Mosul.
As the forces advance on ISIL on a broad front from the west, the regular army is cautiously moving in from the north, and the paramilitary federal police are attacking from the south. Commanders say progress has been slowed by improvised bombs planted by the extremists, who have also used poison gas to stem the Iraqi advance.
On Sunday, two soldiers suffering from the effects of a gas attack arrived at a coalition field hospital near Mosul, said Maj Khalid, a medical officer.
The next day, Salam Sreir, another soldier, arrived at the same hospital with a bandage wrapped around his right arm.
He had come into contact with gas the previous day when his unit found an ISIL weapons dump in the recently liberated Thawra neighbourhood, next to the Old City. “We found a stash of homemade rocket- propelled grenades in a house, and I helped to move them,” Mr Sreir said. “When I picked one up I noticed a strange smell. A few hours later, the skin of my arm started bubbling up and I was in pain.”
In the field hospital, Mr Sreir was given a soapy liquid to wash his arm, which was covered in large blisters. Australian med- ical staff in gas masks hosed him down before leading him into a tent for further treatment while his uniform was discarded in a plastic bag.
The extremists have increasingly used chemical weapons since the fighting shifted to north- west Mosul in April, prompting the Iraqi military to issue gas masks.
ISIL has, so far, released the gas through mortar rounds or crude bombs with fuses. They are now also using rocket-propelled grenades.