WITH FIGHT FOR MOSUL IN FINAL STAGE, DESPERATE MILITANTS STRIKE BACK
With the fight for Mosul in its final stage Monday, Islamic State militants sent female suicide bombers hidden among fleeing civilians, while Iraqi forces and the U.S.-led coalition unleashed punishing airstrikes and artillery fire that set dozens of buildings ablaze. At least one Iraqi soldier was killed and five were wounded in the two separate suicide attacks, the military said. On Sunday, a bomber in women’s clothing killed 14 people at a camp for displaced residents in Anbar province, a provincial official said. No group claimed responsibility for the attack. “These tactics don’t surprise me,” said Sgt. Ahmed Fadil, who patrolled Mosul’s Old City just 50 metres from the front. The militants “have nowhere to go. They’re trapped,” he said. Monday’s two suicide bombings against Iraqi soldiers followed three other such attacks by women — some of them teens — in the previous two days, said Sgt. Ali Abdullah Hussein. A soldier displayed the school ID card retrieved from the body of one of the bombers, showing her to be only 15. “Most of the people who blew themselves up today are women,” said special forces Lt. Col. Salam Hussein.