IRAQI TROOPS HIT
Assault to retake district held by Islamic State
MOSUL
IRAQI forces began storming the Islamic State-held Old City here on Sunday, in an assault they hope will be the last in the eight-month-old campaign to seize the militants’ stronghold.
The historic district, and a tiny area to its north, are the only parts of the city still under control of IS.
“Iraqi forces early this morning breach old Mosul, the final Isisheld district in the city,” Brett McGurk, the United States envoy to the international coalition fighting IS, said on Twitter.
“We are proud to stand with them.”
The Iraqi army estimates the number of IS fighters at no more than 300, down from nearly 6,000 in the city when the battle of Mosul started on Oct 17.
But the Old City is a denselypopulated maze of narrow alleyways and the fighting is slow, bloody and house-to-house.
About 100,000 civilians are trapped, with little food, water or medical treatment.
“This is the final chapter” of the offensive to take Mosul, said Lieutenant-General Abdul Ghani al-Assadi, senior commander of the elite Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS).
A US-led international coalition is providing air and ground support to the campaign.
Several air strikes during the day hit a medical complex just north of the Old City.
Armoured vehicles were heading for the front line north of the Old City, and shelling and gunfire could be heard.
The medical complex, housing the two biggest hospitals here, is held in part by militants, who are using its buildings as sniper outposts.
IS security services chief Kanaan Jiyad Abdullah, also known as Abu Amna, was killed in the morning clashes, said Hisham al-Hashimi, who advises Middle East governments on IS affairs.
A high-ranking IS figure in charge of intelligence, Shakir Mahmud Hamad, was captured in the Old City, Hashimi said.
“We are trying to be very careful, using only light and medium weapons... to avoid casualties among civilians,” CTS divisional commander Major-General Maan Saadi told Iraqi state television.
“We expect thousands of families to escape from the Old City. We have made preparations to evacuate them from the front lines,” Colonel Salam Faraj said.
IS snipers were shooting at families trying to flee on foot or by boat across the Tigris River, to keep civilians as human shields, the United Nations said on Friday.
“The operation now is about street fighting. Air and artillery strikes will be limited because the area is heavily populated and the buildings fragile,” CTS spokesman Sabah al-Numan told al-Hadath TV in Dubai.
Iraqi authorities had also dropped leaflets over the city, warning civilians to stay inside.
The leaflets called on civilians to “stay away from open spaces and... to exploit any opportunity that arises during the fighting” to escape.
Iraqi forces stationed Humvees by the Grand Mosque on the eastern side of Mosul, which faces the Old City and was mounted with speakers.
Messages were being broadcast to IS fighters, telling them: “You have only this choice: surrender or die”. Reuters