Iraqi troops push into villages held by ISIS north of Mosul

MOSUL, Iraq — The Iraqi army, buoyed by their victory this month in liberating the eastern half of Mosul from Islamic State militants, is now pushing into villages held by the Islamic Group, also known as ISIS, north of the city, an Iraqi officer overseeing the operation said Thursday.

Lt. Col. Diya Lafta said troops from the 9th Division under his command began advancing toward two villages just north of Mosul in the morning and “after a few hours they were liberated” from ISIS militants.

By afternoon, the village of Shereikhan had been largely freed of Islamic State militants but fighting continued in the villages beyond, according to reporters at the scene.

Thursday’s operation forced hundreds of civilians to flee. Families escaping the clashes on foot clogged the road into Mosul as a cloud of smoke from an ISIS suicide bombing rose above the horizon.

According to one fleeing resident, Islamic State fighters still control a number of other villages along Mosul’s northern edge.

The push came after Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi earlier this week declared Mosul’s eastern half to be completely free of the Islamic State group.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump is expected to ask the Pentagon for ways to accelerate the fight against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, and officials said the options probably would include steps the Obama administration considered but never acted on, from adding significantly more U.S. troops to boosting military aid to Kurdish fighters

Trump’s visit Friday to the Defense Department’s headquarters will start the conversation over how to fulfill his inauguration address pledge to eradicate radical Islamic terrorism “completely from the face of the Earth.”