Special forces join city siege

Iraq: Elite troops leading the fight against terrorist militants holding Mosul

Iraqi special forces have charged into the Mosul battle with a pre-dawn advance on a nearby town held by Islamic State, a key part of a multi-pronged assault on eastern approaches to the city.

The addition of the elite troops, also known as counter-terrorism forces, marked a significant intensification of the fight for Iraq’s second-largest city.

As they advanced, attack helicopters fired on the militants and heavy gunfire echoed across the plains.

IS militants unleashed nine suicide car and truck bombs against the troops, eight of which were destroyed before reaching their targets, while the ninth struck an armoured Humvee, Lt Col Muntadhar al-Shimmari said.

He did not give a casualty figure, but another officer said five soldiers were wounded.

The special forces entered the town of Bartella, a traditionally Christian village that fell to IS in2014, at around noon. The fighting thus far has been concentrated in a cluster of towns and villages outside Mosul that are mostly uninhabited and littered with roadside bombs planted by the militants, which has slowed the Iraqi advance.

Lt Gen Talib Shaghati said the special forces took Bartella, about nine miles from the edge of Mosul.

Iraqi forces were facing resistance inside the town shortly before he spoke.

The special forces are expected to lead the way into Mosul, where they will face fierce resistance as IS militants are preparing for a climactic battle.

The Kurdish forces known as peshmerga, who are also taking part in the offensive, announced a “large-scale operation” to the north and north-east of Mosul yesterday.

“The operation will be in three fronts,” they said in a statement, and follows recent gains by the Kurds to the east of Mosul and Iraqi security forces to the south.

Peshmerga forces stationed on mountains north-east of Mosul descended from their positions and charged towards the front line. They used bulldozers and other heavy equipment to fill trenches and moved armoured vehicles into the breach after about an hour of mortar and gunfire at IS positions below in Barima.

IS took Mosul during a lightning advance across northern Iraq in 2014, and IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdad i announced the formation of a self-styled caliphate from the pulpit of a Mosul mosque.

Mosul is the largest city controlled by the extremists and their last in Iraq.

ON THE ATTACK: Peshmerga forces launch rockets at IS targets