New push against IS soon
Iraqi forces in Mosul reinforced, ready to launch assault on militants
MOSUL: Iraqi forces stalled for weeks on the edges of Mosul, have been bolstered by reinforcements and are now ready along with elite special forces to launch a stepped up, three-pronged assault against Islamic State militants in the city’s eastern sector, ending a two-week lull in fighting, a top Iraqi general said.
The planned assault aims in part to overcome stiff resistance by the militants that has slowed advances in the more than two-month-old offensive to recapture the northern city, the last main bastion of the IS in Iraq.
In an attempt to isolate militants in the eastern sector from those in the western half of Mosul, warplanes from the US-led coalition destroyed the last remaining bridge over the Tigris River, which runs through city centre.
So far in the Mosul offensive, Iraq’s counter-terrorism forces, which are by far the military’s most battle seasoned unit, have done most of the fighting, pushing in from the east.
But regular army troops on the city’s southeast and northern edges, as well as federal police farther west, have not moved in weeks, unable to penetrate the city either because they are not equipped or trained to fight on the streets or because of inadequate resources.
Lt-Gen Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi, commander of the counter-terrorism forces in eastern Mosul, said in an interview on Tuesday night that units of the federal police have joined units from the military’s Ninth Division southeast of Mosul, while troops have taken positions alongside units from the army’s 16th Division on the north side.
Al-Saadi would not say when the advance would begin.
But it appeared likely within days, weather permitting.
The new reinforcements suggest that original plans to penetrate the city’s western side have been aban- doned and that the plan was now for all forces to push on in the eastern sector.
The bridge hit this week was the last remaining of five bridges across the Tigris between the western and eastern halves. — AP