Fighting renews in western Mosul
Clashes come day after Iraq declared victory in the city.
Airstrikes, shelling and other heavy clashes shook a small sliver of western Mosul on Tuesday in renewed fighting, a day after the government declared victory over Islamic State militants in Iraq’s second-largest city.
Amnesty International, meanwhile, proclaimed the battle for Mosul to be a “civilian catastrophe,” with more than 5,800 noncombatants killed in the western part of the city. The top U.S. commander in Iraq rejected the group’s allegations, however, that the U.S.-led coalition violated international law.
In a sign that Islamic State militants were still holding out in the shattered Old City, plumes of smoke rose as mortar shells landed near Iraqi troop positions and heavy gunfire rang out. Airstrikes pounded the edge of the neighborhood west of the Tigris River throughout the day.
On Monday, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared “total victory” in Mosul, flanked by his senior military leadership at a small base in the city’s west.
The militants overran the northern city in summer 2014, when the extremists seized territory across Iraq and Syria. The campaign by Iraqi forces and the coalition to retake the city began in October 2016. The operation killed thousands of people, left whole neighborhoods in ruins and displaced nearly 900,000 from their homes.
A statement late Monday from the Islamic State said its fighters were still attacking Iraqi troops in the al-Maydan area of Mosul’s Old City, purportedly killing and wounding many and seizing weapons and ammunition.
Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend said in a recorded video after al-Abadi’s declaration that the victory in Mosul did not eliminate the Islamic State from Iraq and “there’s still a tough fight ahead.”
Townsend, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said the coalition will continue to support its Iraqi partners, and he urged Iraqis to unite and prevent a return of the conditions that allowed the rise of the extremists.
In Baghdad, Shiite politician Karim al-Nouri echoed those remarks, urging the government to review its policies in Sunni areas of Iraq to “avoid previous mistakes that led to the emergence” of the Islamic State.
The government needs to work on “removing fears of marginalization and terrorism affiliation in Sunni areas,” said al-Nouri, a senior member of the Badr Organization. He said he believes Iraqi forces should stay in Mosul until it is fully secure before handing control to local forces.
In Geneva, U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein urged the Iraqi government to ensure that human rights will be respected in post-Islamic State Mosul.
Zeid described Mosul’s fall as the “turning point” in the conflict, but warned that the group continues to subject people to “daily horrors” in its remaining strongholds of Tal Afar, west of Mosul, and in Hawijah, north of Baghdad.
“Horrific though the crimes of ISIL are, there is no place for vengeance,” said Zeid, using an acronym for the Islamic State.