Iraq military: Troops have ‘full control’ of eastern Mosul
BAGHDAD — U. S.backed Iraqi government troops announced Wednesday they were in “full control” of eastern Mosul after routing Islamic State extremists from that part of the northern city, three months since the major operation started.
The achievement was a “big victory,” said Iraqi Army Lt. Gen. Talib Shaghati, who commands the counter-terrorism forces, describing the success of the Iraqi forces as “unprecedented.”
Gen. Shaghati, who spoke to reporters in the town of Bartella, just east of Mosul, said plans were now being drawn up to retake the western part of the city.
Wednesday’s advance came after Iraqi troops over the past days intensified their push into the last Isheld neighborhoods in Mosul’s eastern sector, closing in on the Tigris River, which roughly divides the city. Stiff resistance by the militants, thousands of civilians being trapped in their houses by the fighting and bad weather had in the past slowed the advances of the troops.
However, skirmishes and clashes continued in some pockets along the Tigris in eastern Mosul, according to Iraqi special forces Maj. Ali Hussein, who said his unit was still pushing into the Ghabat area along the river bank.
Also, some commanders on the ground disputed Gen. Shaghati’s claim of “full control” of eastern Mosul, with Lt. Gen. Abdul-Amir Raheed Yar Allah saying the eastern side “has not been fully liberated … and the advance is still continuing.”
Prime Minister Haider Alabadi issued a statement, posted on his website, saying that “work is underway to liberate” Ghabat and the area housing Saddam Hussein’s former presidential palaces in eastern Mosul.
But the prospect of retaking western Mosul looms heavy on Iraqi forces, despite all the support they have by the U.S.-led coalition, as well as Sunni and Shiite volunteer militias. The western half of the city is home to some of Mosul’s oldest neighborhoods, with narrow streets packed with buildings that will further complicate the urban fight.
So far in the Mosul offensive, Iraq’s counterterrorism forces, which are by far the military’s most battle seasoned unit, have done most of the fighting, advancing from east of the city.
Regular Iraqi army troops are pushing from the city’s southeast and northern edges, and the federal security forces from farther to the west.
Car bombs, the deadliest weapons deployed by IS, pushed the casualty rate among Iraqi counterterrorism forces to as high as 20 to 25 percent at one point, a general who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject told The Washington Post last week.
Officials said the casualty rate has decreased following a two-week pause in fighting late last month during which Iraqi forces received new fighters and equipment.
“We are using new tactics and strategies, and we have reduced the casualties during the second phase,” Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasoul, spokesman for Iraq’s Joint Operations Command, said last week.
More than 1 million people were estimated to still be living in Mosul in October, when Iraqi forces launched the operation to retake the city.