IRAQI FORCES LAUNCH ASSAULT TO RETAKE MOSUL’S OLD CITY

Mosul, June 18: Iraqi forces launched an assault on Sunday to retake Mosul’s Old City, the last district still held by the Islamic State group three years after the jihadists seized the northern city and declared their “caliphate”.

Military commanders said the assault had begun at dawn, after overnight air strikes by the US-led coalition backing Iraqi forces, and that the jihadists were putting up fierce resistance.

The push into Mosul’s Old City — a densely populated warren of narrow alleyways on the western side of Mosul — marks the culmination of a months-long campaign by Iraq forces to retake IS’s last major urban stronghold in the country.

The loss of Mosul would mark the effective end of the Iraqi portion of the cross-border “caliphate” that IS declared in the summer of 2014, after seizing control of large parts of Iraq and neighbouring Syria.

A military statement announced the start of the assault, saying the army, counter-terrorism forces and federal police “launched an attack on the Old City”.

Machinegun fire crackled and plumes of smoke from missiles rose above the Old City on Sunday morning. Staff Lieutenant General Abdulghani al-Assadi, a senior commander with the Counter-Terrorism Service, said the operation was advancing slowly “to preserve civilian lives as we breach the enemy’s defence lines”.