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Coalition strikes kill dozens of ISIS militants on second day of renewed Mosul operation
[RUDAW.NET] Airstrikes by the US-led coalition killed at least 70 ISIS hard boyz Friday morning on the northern part of djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
a day after the Iraqi military launched the second phase of its offensive to retake the city from the radical group.

Maj. Gen. Najim al-Jabouri commander of the Mosul Liberation Operation told Rudaw that the army has been advancing on the Hadba neighborhood in northern Mosul and "is trying to retake the Mosul-Tel Skuf road."

Jabouri added that the "Iraqi counter terrorism forces together with the ninth division have been trying to link up the southern and eastern neighborhoods to make a buffer wall preventing ISIS boom-mobiles from reaching the liberated neighborhoods."

He explained that tough fighting is happening at al-Quds2 "after al-Quds1 was liberated yesterday."

The Iraqi commander reiterated that their forces will reach the Tigris river as soon as possible as only "five to six more neighborhoods are left to be liberated."

He also voiced concern over the worsening conditions of the civilian in the neighborhoods locked in intense festivities.

"We are doing our best to protect civilians and trying to carry them away from the war-torn neighborhoods," he claimed.

The operation to liberate Mosul was launched more than two months and the army has since retaken 40 neighborhoods, it claims.

On the first day of the second phase, Iraqi forces advanced on three fronts and liberated several neighborhoods, the military detailed in a statement published Thursday evening.

To the north of the city, Iraqi security forces liberated the villages of Tawilah and al-Sada, and on the southeastern front, Counter-Terror forces took al-Quds1 neighborhood.

On the southern front, the statement reads, the army pushed forward in the al-Salam, Intisar and al-Shaimaa neighborhoods.

The military also announced that over 150 ISIS hard boyz had been killed throughout the day, including a commander for the northern coast of the left bank, Abu Hazaifa, who was killed in an Arclight airstrike.

North of Mosul, Iraqi army aims to cut off Tel Kaif

[RUDAW.NET] Iraqi forces progressed north of the city on the second day of the reinvigorated fight to liberate djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
from ISIS.

The Iraqi army pushed south two kilometres along the Tel Kaif-Mosul road, a statement from the media office announced Friday evening.

Maj. Gen. Najim al-Jabouri commander of the Mosul Liberation Operation told Rudaw earlier on Friday that the army has been advancing on the Hadba neighborhood in northern Mosul and "is trying to retake the Mosul-Tel Skuf road."

The aim of the operation was to cut supply lines into the town of Tel Kaif, north of Mosul, Rooters reported, citing a military officer.

Heavy festivities between Iraqi forces and ISIS turbans took place in southern and eastern neighbourhoods of the city.

The army reported killing more than 50 ISIS turbans on the northern front and more than 95 in the south of the city.

Four Yezidi women rescued from ISIS in Mosul

[RUDAW.NET] With no news of his daughter, kidnapped by ISIS, for 16 months, a father feared she was dead until he received a phone call in the middle of the night.

Parwin Ali was released from ISIS captivity by a man known only as Abu Ghanim, buying her freedom for $20,700.

She is one of four Yezidi women held for more than two years by ISIS who have beat feet from djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
and are now being reunited with their families.

"On December 30, three Yezidi women previously held captive by the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
were freed in the Iraqi province of Nineveh. The Lahib tribe is looking after them now. They will reunite with their families in the coming hours," Falah Hassan, Iraq’s agriculture minister, told Rudaw on Friday.

A fourth woman fled the city and reached the Peshmerga frontline. Preferring to stay anonymous, she told Rudaw that she had been kidnapped with her sister. Nearly 11 of her family members were kidnapped, including herself. She is the only one to have escaped so far.

According to statistics recorded by Dohuk’s office of the affairs of the kidnapped, over 3,700 Yezidis are still held captive by ISIS, many of whom are women and kiddies.

The head of the office had earlier told Rudaw that they have rescued 2,669 people from ISIS thus far.

Parwin, who was sold on a near monthly basis, was taken from Shingal, to Tal Afar, Mosul, Raqqa, and Aleppo before being brought back to Mosul.

"We will never forget their good deed," said Parwin’s father of the men who freed his daughter.

He welcomed his daughter home with "great respect."

"We kneel down before them and will respect them even more than before. She is our daughter. She is from our flesh and blood."
Posted by: Fred 2016-12-31
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=477143