IS blast kills over 50 near Al-bab in Syria

US-BACKED IRAQI forces pushed into western Mosul on Friday after retaking the city’s airport from Islamic State, as aid agencies warned the most dangerous phase of the offensive was about to begin for hundreds of thousands of civilians.

Troops disarmed booby traps planted by retreating militant fighters in the airport, which the army plans to use as a base from which to drive Islamic State from Mosul’s western districts and deal a decisive blow to the group.

As they did, Iraqi fighter jets dropped bombs on Islamic State positions inside Syria on Friday. It was the first time the Iraq publicly acknowledged striking militant targets inside Syria.

The new offensive comes after government forces and their allies finished clearing Islamic State from eastern Mosul last month, confining the insurgents to the western sector of the city — bisected by the Tigris river.

Commanders expect the battle in western Mosul to be more difficult, in part because tanks and armoured vehicles cannot pass through the narrow alleyways that crisscross ancient districts there.

The International Rescue Committee said the most dangerous phase of the battle was about to begin for the 750,000 civilians believed to be trapped inside Mosul. “There is a real danger that the battle will be raging around them for weeks and possibly months to come,” said country director Jason Kajer.

The United Nations has warned up to 400,000 civilians could be displaced by the new offensive amid food and fuel shortages.

Iraqi forces launched attacks on several fronts. Counter-terrorism forces clashed with Islamic State inside the southwestern district of al-mamoun and took full control of the Ghozlani military base on Friday, Major General Sami al-aridi, a senior commander, told Reuters.

Separately, federal police and an elite Interior Ministry unit known as Rapid Response advanced into the Hawi al-josaq and al-danadan districts after breaching a berm and a trench set up by Islamic State north of the airport, a spokesman said.

Early raids in the city’s west have so far been restricted to thinly-populated areas. The government encouraged civilians to stay in their homes, but some were caught in the crossfire.

Airstrikes in Syria

Jamal Abdelnasser, 14, was shot in the leg by Islamic State when the militants stormed his home to take up sniper positions. After crossing the frontline, soldiers unwrapped the bloodsoaked bandages around his leg and poured iodine on the wound.

Defeat in Mosul would likely deal a hammer blow to Islamic State’s self-styled caliphate in areas it seized in 2014. But the group still controls swathes of territory in neighbouring Syria and patches in Iraq.

Iraqi airstrikes on Friday targeted Islamic State sites in Syria on Friday, including a factory for making car bombs, said a colonel in Iraq’s military intelligence.

“We gave orders to the air force command to strike Islamic State positions in Hosaiba and Albu Kamal inside Syrian territory as they were responsible for recent bombings in Baghdad,” Prime Minister Haider al-abadi said in a statement.

A source close to Syria’s foreign ministry said the raid had been carried out in “complete coordination” with the Damascus government.

On the ground in Mosul, Western advisors are increasingly present close to the frontline, helping coordinate air strikes and advising Iraqi forces as the battle unfolds. REUTERS AN ISLAMIC STATE car bomb killed more than 50 people on Friday in a Syrian village held by rebels, a war monitor said, a day after the group was driven from its last stronghold in the area.

The blast in the village of Sousian hit a security checkpoint controlled by rebels fighting under the Free Syrian Army (FSA) banner. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring organisation based in Britain, said more than 50 people died including over 30 civilians. Two rebels contacted by Reuters put the total death toll at at least 40.

One of the two, a fighter with the Sultan Murad Brigade near al-bab, said: “It was done on a checkpoint but there were a lot of families there gathered and waiting to get back to Al-bab.”

The Turkish-backed rebels drove Islamic State from the town of al-bab on Thursday, following weeks of street battles near an area where Ankara wants to establish a safe zone for civilians.

Turkey said on Friday that Syrian rebels had taken full control of all of Al-bab, and that work to clear mines and unexploded ordnance was under way.