Iraqis encircle mosque in Mosul to cut off road

Move to cordon the Old City before concerted assault

MOSUL // Iraqi forces battling ISIL in Mosul edged into the Old City and circled Al Nuri mosque yesterday in an attempt to seal off a main road.

They were trying to prevent suicide bombers from attacking their positions.

Iraqi troops faced fierce resistance as militants retreated into the Old City, where street fighting is expected in the narrow alleys and around the mosque where ISIL declared its caliphate about three years ago. The black ISIL flag still hangs from the mosque’s minaret.

A helicopter fired rockets into the area and heavy gunfire and mortar blasts echoed as troops made forays into nearby districts.

“Federal police and rapid response forces completely control Al Basha mosque, Al Adala street and Bab Al Saray market inside the Old City,” a federal police spokesman said.

“Forces are trying to isolate the Old City area from all sides and then start an offensive from all sides.” Five months into the campaign to liberate Mosul, ISIL’s last major stronghold in the country, Iraqi forces supported by US-led coalition air strikes have retaken the eastern half of the city and about half of the western side across the Tigris river.

They are now trying to lay siege to the Old City and cut off a street to prevent ISIL from deploying the armoured suicide car and lorry bombs that have been targeting army positions in the city. On Wednesday, a suicide bomber in an armoured digger lorry smashed through vehicles and barricades before detonating a blast that destroyed several vehicles, including Iraqi US-made Abrams tanks. An attack on Thursday was stopped when the vehicle was hit by a rocket in the Bab Tob old market area before it could approach federal police and other units.

US officials estimated that about 2,000 fighters were in the city. The risk is that the militants will return to the guerrilla warfare and bombings they have used against the capital and other cities. North of Baghdad, a Sunni militia leader was killed with two family members and two guards yesterday when gunmen broke into his house, police and army sources said.

Lateef Al Jari, local leader of the Sunni brigade in the small town of Mishahda, was killed in the attack, which security sources blamed on ISIL.