Iraqis in new Mosul push

BAGHDAD, April 16, (Agencies): Iraqi forces launched a new attack on Islamic State in Mosul’s Old City on Sunday, military officials said, trying

An Iraqi Syriac Christian girl smiles during an Easter procession at the Saint John’s Church (Mar Yohanna) in the nearly deserted predominantly Christian Iraqi town of Qaraqosh (also known as Hamdaniya), some 30 kms from

Mosul on April 16. (AFP)

to break the stalemate in attempts to seize the militants’ last stronghold.

Mosul, Iraq’s second biggest city, was captured by the Sunni Muslim fighters in 2014, but government forces have retaken much of it during a sixmonth operation.

The advance has hardly moved for more than a month, though, as the militants are holding out in the densely populated Old City in western Mosul, where tanks and heavy vehicles are not able to operate because of its narrow streets.

Iraq’s federal police moved forces 200 metres deeper into the Old City, getting closer to al-Nuri mosque, a statement said.

The mosque is highly symbolic because it was there that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared himself

head of a self-proclaimed caliphate.

Troops have had the centuries-old mosque with its leaning minaret in their sights since last month.

A captain in the federal police said Sunday’s advance had started in the early morning with troops fighting the militants house to house.

“DAESH suicide motorcycles now are their favourite weapon inside the Old City,” he said, using a derogatory name for Islamic State. “We have to

watch every single house to avoid attackers on motorcycles packed with explosives.”

Iraqi government forces, backed by US advisers, artillery and air support, have cleared the east and half of western Mosul and are now focused on the Old City.

Some 400,000 people are trapped in the Old City while more than 300,000 have fled fighting since the operation started in October, officials have said.

The Iraqi parliament passed a law Saturday allowing seizure of assets of officials of the defunct Iraqi regime, and transfer them to the state treasury.

The law, a copy obtained by KUNA, called for seizure of assets of Saddam Hussein and his family or their agents in addition to 52 former Baath party officials.

The law paved way for seizure of assets of Saddam’s deputy Izzat Douri, currently at large, Saddam’s personal secretary Abd Hammoud, his cousin Ali Hassan Al-Majeed, his foregin minister Tareq Aziz and his defense minister Sultan Hashem.

Other former Baath party officials, including Taha Yasseen Ramadhan, Watban and Barzan and Sabawi Ibrahim Al-Hassan, will have their assets seized by the state as well.

The parliament said the law aimed at achieving justice upon all.

Flooding has made all bridges across the Tigris in and out of western Mosul impassable, cutting off aid supplies and escape routes for people fleeing the Islamic State-held part of the Iraqi city.

With the bridges down, hundreds of civilians crossed the surging river on small wooden boats on Sunday, some carrying babies and all carting suitcases or bags full of clothes.

They were some of the around 400,000 people still in western Mosul where Iraqi military forces are trying to dislodge IS from the Old City.

Mosul’s permanent bridges over the Tigris river have been destroyed during the fighting, but the army had built two pontoon bridges which had allowed people to flee to safety in the east, and aid to get through to a camp for the displaced on the western side of the river.