ISIL puts up fierce resistance in Mosul
Car bombs and militants hiding among civilians make it difficult for Iraqi forces to retake areas of the city
NEAR MOSUL // Iraqi forces faced car bombs and fierce resistance from ISIL militants in southern Mosul yesterday, the second day of a push to take back the city after fighting stalled for several weeks.
An officer in the federal police forces, which joined the battle on Thursday, said there were heavy clashes in the south-east Palestine district, but they had made progress in two other neighbourhoods, disabling a number of car bombs.
Another officer, from an elite interior ministry unit fighting alongside federal police, said his forces were gaining ground in the Intisar district despite heavy clashes there.
Iraqi forces in the east and north of the city were clearing areas they had recaptured on Thursday before advancing any further, and the army was trying to cut supply lines to the town of Tel Keyf, north of Mosul.
Since the offensive began 10 weeks ago, US- backed Iraqi forces have retaken a quarter of the extremist group’s last major stronghold in Iraq.
The Mosul offensive is the biggest ground operation in the country since the 2003 US- led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
Recapturing the city would probably spell the end for ISIL’s self-styled caliphate, and prime minister Haider Al Abadi has said the group would be driven out of Iraq by April.
Elite forces pushed into Mosul from the east in October but regular army troops tasked with advancing from the north and south made slower progress and the operation stalled.
After regrouping this month, they renewed the offensive on Thursday, advancing from the south, east and north of the city, which has been under militant control for more than two years.
Yesterday, Americans in armoured vehicles accompanied top commanders to meetings in a village north of Mosul.
Although the militants are outnumbered, they have embedded themselves among Mosul residents, hindering Iraqi forces who are trying to avoid civilian casualties. Despite food and water shortages, most civilians have stayed in their homes rather than flee the city.
On the northern front, Iraqi forces have yet to enter Mosul itself but yesterday they were clearing newly recaptured areas on its periphery as well as trying to cut off Tel Keyf.
“The enemy had occupied this area and used it for resting and resupplying towards Tel Keyf and Mosul,” said Maj Gen Najim Al Jabouri, a commander in the offensive, in the northern district of Sada, which was recaptured on Thursday. “Tel Keyf is surrounded from the other sides and by our forces here.”
He said the US- led coalition backing Iraqi forces had killed 70 militants since late Thursday and were using helicopters, rocket launchers and fighter jets.
Mosul is bisected by the Tigris river, and Iraqi forces have yet to enter the western side where 2,000-year-old markets and narrow alleyways are likely to complicate any advance.
Coalition forces bombed the last remaining bridge connect- ing east and west Mosul on Monday in an attempt to block ISIL’s access across the Tigris River.
A medical source in Mosul said a number of wounded militants had been ferried across the river to the emergency hospital on the western side of city on Thursday.
The source said the militants were denying wounded and sick civilians access to the hospital.
More than 114,000 civilians have been displaced from Mosul, according to the United Nations – a fraction of the 1.5 million thought to still be inside.