Iraq launches operation to retake western Mosul from Islamic State

Forces push into southern outskirts of beseiged city

IRBIL, IRAQ Iraqi security forces pushed into the southern outskirts of Mosul on Monday, the second day of a new offensive to drive the Islamic State from the western half of the beleaguered city.

Iraqi helicopters fired rockets at a hill in the village of Abu Saif that overlooks Mosul’s airport and provides militants with a defense on the southern approach to Iraq’s second- largest city, the Associated Press reported.

Meanwhile, police in armored vehicles were moving toward the Ghazlani military base on the southwestern outskirts of the city, according to the AP.

U. S.- backed Iraqi forces launched an offensive Sunday to drive the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, from its last stronghold in the country in an operation that risks triggering a massive humanitarian crisis.

Prime Minister Haider al- Abadi announced the move to retake control of western part of Mosul, saying in a televised statement, “Our forces are beginning the liberation of the citizens from the terror” of ISIS. The militants captured the city in 2014.

U. S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on an unannounced visit to Iraq on Monday that the United States does not intend to seize Iraqi oil.

The statement is a shift from a proposal by President Trump that has rattled Iraq’s leaders, along with his inclusion of Iraq in a controversial executive order temporarily banning immigration from seven majority- Muslim countries.

Iraq last month declared that it had “liberated” eastern Mosul from ISIS but the fight for the western part of the city will be far tougher because of its narrow streets and dense civilian population, which will limit the use of airstrikes and armor.

An estimated 750,000 civilians, half of them children, are still trapped in western Mosul by several thousand ISIS fighters. The United Nations estimated 250,000 to 400,000 civilians may flee, needing emergency refugee camps that are currently under construction.

“Mosul would be a tough fight for any army in the world, and the Iraqi forces have risen to the challenge,” U. S. Army Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, commander of the coalition in Iraq, said Sunday in a statement.

“The battle for the complete liberation of Mosul cannot come soon enough,” the statement said. The Islamic State for the past two years “committed horrible atrocities and terrorized the people of Mosul.”

The elite Rapid Response divisions of the Iraqi forces are leading the western Mosul offensive, which is largely pushing up from the south, west of the Tigris River that runs through the heart of the city, the Iraqi army said. Iraqi troops and police are looking to retake Mosul airport.

The Islamic State instituted a 6 p. m. curfew for civilians in the western part of the city, according to Iraqi media. Interviews with civilians who escaped revealed growing brutality by the militants after they accuse people of being traitors for refusing to fight alongside the Islamic State.

“They forced us to go to the mosque and threatened us,” said Marwan Thamer, 33, a former resident of western Mosul who fled three weeks ago on a smug- gler’s boat.

Islamic State lost nearly half its force of 3,000 to 6,000 fighters in Mosul since the operation began Oct. 17 to retake the city, said Air Force Col. John Dorrian, a military spokesman in Baghdad.

“One thing we’ve seen is that the enemy will begin to turn on itself,” Dorrian said. “Fighters who want to try to escape will try to have someone go to the front instead of them.”

Islamic State fighters suspected of being cowards or planning to desert are executed, he said.

Dorrian pointed out that many Islamic State commanders were killed in airstrikes, so the militant group is relying on “third- or fourth- stringers,” which will limit its effectiveness. The Islamic State also has very little ability to reinforce or resupply its fighters, being almost completely surrounded by Iraqi forces.

Civilians are trapped as well and cut off from food supplies. Aid agencies warn about a humanitarian disaster.

“The situation is distressing. People right now are in trouble. We are hearing reports of parents struggling to feed their children and to heat their homes,” Lise Grande, the U. N. humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, said in a Saturday statement.

“One thing we’ve seen is that the enemy will begin to turn on itself.” Air Force Col. John Dorrian

AHMAD AL- RUBAYE, AFP/ GETTY IMAGES Iraqi forces advance near the village of Husseinyah, south of Mosul on Monday, during the offensive to retake the western side of the city from the Islamic State, held since 2014.