Second phase begins in Iraqi offensive against Islamic State in Mosul

CAIRO — Iraqi security forces launched the second phase of their offensive against Islamic State in the key city of Mosul on Thursday, advancing into the city with U.S. forces embedded closer to the front line than in the past.

While Iraqi counterterrorism and army units pushed forward from the north and east toward the Tigris River that divides the city, several thousand federal police advanced to the southeast, commanders said.

“The prime minister gave us orders to reach the river in a short time. Now the second step, this morning, begins,” said Maj. Gen. Najim Jabouri, Iraqi army commander of the offensive, reached by phone where he was overseeing troops in a northern Mosul neighborhood.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi had hoped to retake Mosul by year’s end, but said this week he expected the offensive to take another three months.

Jabouri said troops started their latest attack at 7 a.m. with strong air support from U.S. forces, hoping to reach the river in a few days and to capture the city sooner than the prime minister expected.

To the north, units of the 16th Division of the Iraqi Army cleared neighborhoods and took new ground. To the east, counterterrorism troops pushed into the city along two fronts. To the south, Iraqi federal police also began clearing Mosul neighborhoods.

“The Iraqi multi-axis advance opens two new fronts within the city and increases pressure on (Islamic State’s) dwindling ability to generate forces, move fighters or resupply,” the U.S.-led coalition said in a statement Thursday.

Islamic State seized the northern city, Iraq’s second-largest, two years ago, and it became central to the survival of group’s self-proclaimed caliphate spanning Iraq and Syria.

The offensive to recapture Mosul began Oct. 17 as a joint effort by 100,000 Iraqi troops, Kurdish security forces and Shiite militias — all backed by the U.S.-led coalition — the country’s largest military operation since the U.S.led invasion in 2003.