23 Mosul districts now retaken by Iraqi troops

BAGHDAD, Dec 2, (Agencies): Iraqi special forces fighting Islamic State militants in the northern city of Mosul seized a new neighborhood on Friday and took full control of a densely-populated neighborhood, where troops happened upon a residential complex for IS fighters, according to two Iraqi field commanders.

Lt Col Muhanad al-Tamimi of the special forces told The Associated Press his men were now in full control of the Zohour neighborhood, more than a week after they first entered the district.

He said his men also captured the neighborhood of Qadissiyah-2, bringing to 23 the number of neighborhoods retaken by the special forces in the eastern sector of the city since the campaign to recapture Mosul began on Oct 17.

Brig Gen Haider Fadhil of the special forces later told the AP on Friday that his men had taken over two adjacent, two-story houses in Zohour where IS fighters lived. In the garden, they found life-sized cardboard cutouts for target practice, he said.

Adorned

The walls inside the two houses were adorned with posters of RPGs, assault rifles and artillery shells. Some posters had instructions for snipers and RPG users, he said. Flyers bearing the names of the fighters who slept in each room were plastered on doors, he added.

Shortly after Gen Fadhil spoke, the state-run al-Iraqiyah TV network showed footage taken inside the houses, with black-clad special forces searching them with their rifles on the ready. The footage showed metal bunker beds dressed with colorful blankets.

There has been some discrepancy over the exact number of neighborhoods retaken from IS thus far, something that Iraqi commanders explain as a possible result of the use of different maps of the city or the exceptionally small size of some neighborhoods.

On Wednesday, for example, Gen Fadhil of the special forces said his men were in control of 19 neighborhoods, which constituted less than 30 percent of the part of the city east of the Tigris River.

Most of the fighting in Mosul has taken place in the city’s eastern sector, where Iraq’s special forces are making slow progress because of fears over the safety of civilians still inside the city and spirited IS resistance.

Deployed

The campaign to retake Mosul is being launched on a multitude of fronts, with forces from the army, federal police and Sunni tribal militias deployed to the north and south of the city. State-sanctioned militias are holding territory to the west of Mosul, but are not expected to enter the mostly Sunni city.

Iraq’s second largest city, Mosul was captured by IS in 2014 when the militants swept across much of Iraq’s north and west. The city is the largest urban center in Iraq still held by IS.

On the road to Tal Afar, an Iraqi city near Syria that’s been key to sectarian catastrophes in both countries over the past decade, a mosaic of rag-tag troops advancing against Islamic State militants have one symbol in common.

The image of Imam Hussein, the revered Shiite figure emblematic of ancient suffering and oppression at the hands of Sunni Muslims, adorns flags and markings on a stream of armored vehicles headed to the front.

It’s only a symbol, some say, which steels fighters and rallies the majority around a sense of identity in this fractured country. But to Iraqi minorities, especially those in Tal Afar, forces advancing under Shiite banner and fanfare have raised alarm.

Confident officials and military men say the army will lead the charge on the city, keen to avoid enflaming sectarian frictions. In staging areas for the offensive, however, state-sanctioned Shiite militias and army units aligned with their cause run the show, positioning themselves to control the territory after the fight. The seemingly inevitable end result could open the door to fresh domestic and regional conflict.

The militias, which are also backed by Iran, have at the very least antagonized local Sunnis in the past — a track record that does not bode well for Tal Afar’s current population of mostly Sunni Turkmen. And in previous Sunni areas retaken from IS such as Fallujah, they have been accused of extrajudicial killings, ethnic cleansing, and other abuses against civilians — charges they deny.

“There is some political issue interfering with the war — some people say they don’t want the Hashd to enter the city alone, others say they want the army,” said Kazem Ali, a fighter with the Hashd al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilization Forces, which has sent thousands of volunteers to the city’s outskirts. “But we have a plan, and everybody will be surprised that suddenly there is no more Daesh,” said the 60-year-old, using the Arabic acronym for IS as he headed to the front with dozens of comrades near the village of Ain al-Jehesh.

Militia commanders choose more tempered words, agreeing with the government and army’s position that they will merely support the troops’ assault.

But with Iraqi army resources dedicated to Mosul, the main battleground with IS, the militias were given free reign over the city’s western approach, where they hope to establish a long-term presence and influence.