Iraq Forces Have Retaken 60% Of East Mosul

Iraqi forces have retaken around two-thirds of the eastern half of Mosul from Daesh since the start of an offensive in mid-October, a top commander said on Sunday.

“From east Mosul... more than 60 per cent” has been retaken from Daesh, Staff Lieutenant General Abdul Wahab Al Saadi, a top commander in Iraq’s Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS), told AFP.

He was speaking from his headquarters northeast of Mosul, where Daesh proclaimed a “caliphate” in June 2014 after seizing the city.

Iraq’s elite CTS forces are the best-equipped, best-trained and most seasoned forces in the country but the going has been tough since Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi announced the beginning of an operation to retake Mosul on October 17 last year.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians remain inside Iraq’s second city, forcing Iraqi and allied forces to take precautions and slowing their advance.

CTS and other forces more recently deployed inside the city have been moving house-to-house, dodging sniper fire, suicide car bombs and booby traps to retake one neighbourhood after another.

Daesh meanwhile attacked an Iraqi police checkpoint near the southern city of Najaf on Sunday, killing seven policemen.

The Najaf attack, which involved gunmen and a suicide car bomb, followed blasts a day earlier in Baghdad that left 29 people dead, a reminder of Daesh’s continued ability to operate away from territory under its control.

The second phase of the campaign to retake Mosul launched on Thursday following weeks of deadlock has pushed Daesh out of several more areas despite fierce resistance.

The fourth day of the renewed push saw incremental advances on the eastern and southeastern fronts.

A military statement said the counter-terrorism forces had retaken part of Karama district.

A federal police officer said Iraqi forces had taken near total control of Intisar and Siha neighbourhoods, and were clearing Salam.

“For the fourth day in a row, federal police units supported by the army are on the offensive,” he told Reuters at a forward base in Intisar.

The attack near Najaf, 500km south of Mosul, happened when two vehicles travelling through the desert were stopped at a police checkpoint around Al Qadisiya town, local police sources said.

The driver detonated an explosive load and the second vehicle fled. Police pursued it and killed the two militants inside.

In a statement distributed online by supporters, Daesh claimed responsibility for the attack, which also wounded 17 people, including civilians. It said four gunmen had opened fire before detonating explosive vests and then a fifth assailant launched a suicide car bomb.

It was not immediately possible to reconcile those accounts.

Families leaving Mithaq district on Sunday had to climb over earthen berms the military has built across roads to block car bombs.

One resident reached by phone in eastern Mosul said he had never seen such heavy bombardment. Several civilians were wounded when a mortar fell in his street, but they could not be ferried to the hospital on the western side of the city because air strikes have taken all the bridges out of service.

“One of them is my friend. His stomach is bleeding badly. We found a doctor in the neighbourhood to treat him but I fear he will die if he stays like this for long,” he said.

A resident of Karama district said Daesh had begun forcing residents out of some areas, burning the cars of residents who refused to move.

“They want to clear out the neighbourhood before the Iraqi forces enter,” he said. 

source : gulfnews