The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Iraqi forces make swift gains in Mosul
MOSUL, IRAQ — Iraqi forces have won a string of swift territorial gains in Mosul in the fight against the Islamic State after months of slow progress, with a senior officer Saturday laying claim to a cluster of buildings inside Mosul University and access to a bridge.
Iraqi forces now control the eastern sides of three of the city’s five bridges that span the Tigris River and connect Mosul’s east to west. Warplanes from the U.S.-led coalition bombed the city’s bridges late last year in an effort to isolate Islamic State fighters then in the city’s east by disrupting resupply routes.
At Mosul University, senior commanders said Iraqi forces had secured more than half of the campus Saturday amid stiff resistance, but clashes were ongoing into the afternoon. Iraqi forces entered the university from the southeast Friday morning and by nightfall had taken control of a handful of buildings, Brig. Gen. Haider Fadhil and Lt. Gen. Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi said on a tour of the university Saturday.
Thick clouds of black smoke rose from the middle of the sprawling complex. By afternoon, clashes had intensified, with volleys of sniper and mortar fire targeting the advancing Iraqi forces. Convoys of Iraqi Humvees snaked through the campus, pausing for artillery and airstrikes to clear snipers perched within classrooms, dormitories and behind the trees that line the campus streets.
Islamic State fighters overran Mosul in the summer of 2014, announcing their selfstyled “caliphate” after taking a large swath of Iraq and Syria in a lightning surge. Access to the city’s central bank, a large taxable civilian population and nearby oilfields quickly made the Islamic State the world’s wealthiest terrorist group.
A punishing campaign of U.S.-led coalition airstrikes has pushed the militants underground, yet Islamic State leaders continue to use Mosul as a key logistical hub for planning meetings. If Iraqi forces recapture Mosul, Islamic State territory in Iraq that once stretched across a third of the country will be reduced to small pockets in the north and west that troops will likely be able to mop up relatively quickly.
The massive operation to retake Mosul from the Islamic State was launched in October. Since then Iraqi forces have slowly clawed back more than a third of the city. The Islamic State maintains tight control of the city’s western half, where Iraqi forces will likely encounter another wave of heavy resistance. The west of the city is home to some of Mosul’s densest neighborhoods and an estimated 700,000 civilians.
Iraqi soldiers at Mosul University said while they were still coming under heavy small arms fire, Islamic State resistance was significantly less than they faced during the first weeks of the Mosul operation.
“We were targeted with only four car bombs where before (they) would send 20 in one day,” special forces Lt. Zain al-Abadeen said. “And they aren’t armored like before, they’re just using civilian cars.”