Iraqi troops resume Mosul fight after 2-week lull
MOSUL, Iraq (AP) — Breaking a two-week lull in fighting, Iraqi troops backed by the U.S.-led coalition’s airstrikes and artillery pushed deeper into eastern Mosul on Thursday in a multi-pronged assault against Islamic State militants in the city.
Elite special forces pushed into the Karama and Quds neighborhoods, while army troops and federal police advanced into the nearby Intisar, Salam and Sumor neighborhoods. Columns of dark smoke rose overhead as explosions shook the city and heavy machine gun fire echoed through the streets.
Stiff resistance by the militants, civilians trapped inside their houses and bad weather have slowed advances in the more than two-month-old offensive to recapture Iraq’s second largest city, the extremist group’s last urban bastion in the country. It is the biggest Iraqi military operation since the 2003 U.S.led invasion.
The battle began around 7 a.m. on a bright but chilly December day and continued until shortly before sundown.
The counterterrorism forces, also known as the Golden Brigade, captured about half of the Quds neighborhood by early afternoon.
A statement by the U.S.led coalition said Thursday’s offensive opened two new fronts in eastern Mosul, increasing pressure on the militants’ “dwindling ability to generate forces, move fighters or resupply.”
It said that, at the request of the Iraqi government, coalition warplanes had “re-struck” two bridges over the Tigris River in Mosul on Tuesday, and a day earlier “disabled” the last bridge crossing in the city.
“The strikes were conducted to reduce enemy freedom of movement, and to further disrupt ISIL’s ability to reinforce, resupply, or use vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices in East Mosul,” said the statement.
Another coalition statement said an airstrike Thursday that targeted a van used by IS fighters in Mosul was later determined to have been located at a hospital’s parking lot, “resulting in possible civilian casualties.”
The coalition, it added, “takes all allegations of civilian casualties seriously and this incident will be fully investigated and the findings released in a timely and transparent manner.” It was not immediately known how many, if any, were hurt by the airstrike.
Coalition airstrikes have been crucial in the fight against IS in Iraq, but a report released earlier this month by Airwars, a London-based project that tracks the coalition’s airstrikes, criticized the coalition’s lack of transparency when assessing civilian casualties.
While U.S. officials have acknowledged that 173 civilians have died in coalition airstrikes since the launch of the campaign against IS in the summer of 2014, the Airwars group said the number of civilian casualties is much greater, putting it at at least 1,500.
Lt. Gen. Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi, commander of Iraq’s the special forces in eastern Mosul, said his forces have been bolstered by reinforcements and are were less than 3 kilometers (2 miles) from the Tigris River, which slices the city in half.
The special forces, officially known as the Counter Terrorism Service, 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 militarized federal police farther west, have not moved in weeks, unable to penetrate the city.
The troops have faced grueling urban fighting, often house to house against IS militants who have had more than two years to dig in and prepare. Even in districts that have been recaptured, Iraqi troops have faced surprise attacks, shelling and car bombs. The extremists have launched more than 900 car bombs against Iraqi troops in and around Mosul. Al-Saadi said 260 of them had targeted his men.
He said he expected Iraqi forces would drive IS from Mosul and the rest of Nineveh province within three months.