Iraqi forces enter Mosul city limits
‘Daesh is fighting back’ as troops capture TV station, Iraqi general says
BAZWAYA, IRAQ— Iraq’s special forces entered the outskirts of Mosul on Tuesday, taking the state television building and advancing despite fierce resistance by Daesh fighters who control the city, an Iraqi general said.
It was the first time Iraqi troops have set foot in the city, Iraq’s second largest, in more than two years. The advance could be the start of a gruelling and slow operation for the troops, who will be forced to engage in difficult, house-to-house fighting in urban areas, which is expected to take weeks, if not months.
Troops entered Gogjali, a neighbourhood inside Mosul’s city limits, and later the borders of the more built-up Karama district, according to Maj. Gen. Sami al-Aridi of the Iraqi special forces. As the sun went down, a sandstorm blew in, reducing visibility to only100 metres and bringing the day’s combat to an end.
“Daesh is fighting back and have set up concrete blast walls to block off the Karama neighbourhood and our troops’ advance,” al-Aridi said. Bombs have been laid along the road into the city, he added.
Later, al-Aridi said the troops had taken the nearby state television building, the only one in the province, and that heavy fighting broke out when they tried to continue further into built-up areas. An official casualty report has yet to be given, but officers mentioned one dead and one wounded.
Mosul is the final bastion of Daesh — also known as ISIS or ISIL — in Iraq, the city from which it drove out a larger but demoralized Iraqi army in 2014 and declared a “caliphate” that stretched into Syria. Its loss would be a major defeat for the jihadis, but with the closest Iraqi troops still some 10 kilometres from the city centre, much ground remains to be covered.
Tuesday’s battle opened up with Iraqi artillery, tank and machine-gun fire on Daesh positions on the edge of Gogjali neighbourhood, with the extremists responding with guided anti-tank missiles and small arms in an attempt to block the advance. Airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition supporting the operation added to the fire hitting the district.
Spokesman Col. John Dorrian said the U.S.-led coalition, which co-ordinates all its attacks with the Iraqis, has been observing the battlefield and has noted that Daesh forces can no longer move in large numbers. “And when we see them come together where there are significant numbers, we will strike them and kill them,” he said during a televised press conference with Iraqi forces in Qayara, south of Mosul. Concerns over civilian casualties have led to air operations using precision munitions only, he added.
In a statement, the coalition said that a day earlier it had launched six strikes in the Mosul area, destroying 10 vehicles, including one carrying explosives, as well as a bomb-making facility. It also said it damaged 20 vehicles and a tunnel
From the nearest village east of Mosul, Bazwaya, smoke could be seen rising from buildings in Gogjali, where shells and bombs had landed. Daesh fighters also lit special fires to produce dark smoke in order to obscure the aerial view of the city.
Inside the village, white flags still hung from some buildings, put up a day earlier by residents eager to show they wouldn’t resist the Iraqi forces’ advance. Some residents stood outside their homes, while children raised their hands with V-for-victory signs.
The families, estimated to number in the hundreds, will be evacuated from the village to a displaced persons camp, according to Brig. Gen. Haider Fadhil of the Iraqi forces.
As the fighting raged, several of the newly displaced from Bazwaya could be seen carrying white flags and driving a herd of some 150 sheep toward the camp.
Emad Hassan, 33, a former police officer, said he had come to Bazwaya when the operation started in order to flee the Daesh fighters.
“When I knew the security forces were serious about liberating Mosul, I came here,” he said. “Daesh was preventing families from moving toward the security forces and ordered them into the city centre, but I refused and stayed.”
For more than two weeks, Iraqi forces and their Kurdish allies, Sunni tribesmen and Shiite militias have been converging on Mosul from all directions to drive Daesh from the city.
Iraqi forces have made uneven progress in closing in on the city. Advances have been slower to the south, with government troops still 35 kilometres away. To the north are Kurdish forces and Iraqi army units, and Shiite militias are sweeping toward the western approach in an attempt to cut off a final Daesh escape route.
The Shiite forces, Iran-backed troops known as the Popular Mobilization Units, are not supposed to enter Mosul, given concerns that the battle for the Sunni-majority city could aggravate sectarian tensions.
Just behind the eastern front line, the army’s ninth division has moved toward Mosul on the path cleared by the special forces, and was now approximately 3 kilometres from its eastern outskirts.
The U.S. military estimates Daesh has 3,000 to 5,000 fighters in Mosul and another 1,500 to 2,500 in its outer defensive belt. The total includes about 1,000 foreign fighters. They stand against an anti-Daesh force that including army units, militarized police, special forces and Kurdish fighters totals over 40,000 men.
According to a video published online by Daesh, life was normal inside Karama district a day earlier. Released by its Aamaq news agency, the footage from Karama shows residents insisting that life is normal and that “no apostates or Shiites” had entered the city