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Mosul Offensive News
 Iraqi forces continue operations in Mosul ERBIL: Iraqi forces pressed gains against Daesh militants in eastern Mosul on Wednesday and have retaken two more districts, security sources said, with thousands more civilians fleeing the fighting. An elite Interior Ministry unit had entered the Mithaq district and were clearing it on Wednesday, the sources said, while counterterrorism forces retook an industrial zone on Tuesday. The militants are using the city terrain to their advantage, concealing car bombs in narrow alleys, posting snipers on tall buildings with civilians on lower floors, and making underground tunnels and surface-level passageways between buildings. “We were very afraid,” said one Mithaq resident. “A Daesh anti-aircraft weapon was positioned close to our house and was opening fire on helicopters. We could see a small number of Daesh fighters in the street carrying light and medium weapons. They were hit by planes.” Most of those fleeing are from the eastern districts but residents of the besieged west, still fully under the militants’ control, are increasingly attempting to escape, scaling bridges bombed by the coalition and crossing the Tigris by boat. Counterterrorism units pushed into eastern Mosul in October but regular army troops tasked with advancing from the north and south made slower progress and the operation stalled. After redeploying forces, Iraqi forces have been advancing on three fronts toward the Tigris river that bisects Mosul, in a second phase of the offensive. Victory in Mosul would probably spell the end for Daesh’s self-styled caliphate but in recent days the militants have displayed the tactics to which they are likely to resort when they lose the city, with bomb attacks in Baghdad, and attacks on security forces in territory they have lost. Displacement increased The UN refugee agency has said 125,568 people have been displaced from Mosul, a city of about 1.5 million, and more than 13,000 of those have fled in the five days since the US-led coalition renewed an offensive that had stalled for weeks. That represents an increase of nearly 50 percent in the number of people who fled every day from Mosul over the several weeks of relative calm that ended last weekend. Twelve weeks into Iraq’s largest military campaign since the US-led invasion of 2003, security forces have retaken about a quarter of Mosul. “Following the intensification of military operations in Mosul city on Dec. 29, the rate of displacement from Mosul has increased markedly, with over 9,000 people having fled the city in the space of four days,” said the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). OCHA also said about 14,000 of the 125,568 people confirmed to have been displaced in 11 weeks have already returned to their homes in recaptured areas. After a lull in the offensive launched on Oct. 17 to retake what is now the Daesh group’s last major stronghold in the country, Iraqi forces started a fresh push last week, engaging in heavy fighting in eastern Mosul. A senior commander from the elite Counter-Terrorism Service that has done most of the front-line fighting inside the city told AFP on Sunday that Iraqi forces now controlled more than 60 percent of Mosul’s eastern half. AFP reporters saw streams of civilians fleeing the fighting on foot in recent days, carrying what belongings they could bring along in bags. Iraqi helo crash claims 4 [al-Manar] An Iraqi attack helicopter crashed Wednesday south of the Mosul battlefield, killing all four crew members, security officials said. “During an army aviation mission this morning, an aircraft crashed due to a technical failure,” the Joint Operations Command coordinating the fight against the ISIL Takfiri group said in a statement. An official in the JOC said the entire crew was killed in the crash. “The crew of four — two pilots and two technicians — was killed,” a captain in Iraq’s army aviation told AFP. “They were heading to Qayyarah on a routine mission,” he said, referring to an area that has been the main military hub south of Mosul since the launch on October 17 of an operation to retake the city from ISIL. The helicopter was a Russian-made Mi-35 gunship, he said. Iraqi forces reach banks of Tigris More than 2,000 Iraqis a day are fleeing Mosul, several hundred more each day than before Iraqi forces began a new phase of their battle to retake the city from ISIS, the United Nations said on Wednesday. After quick initial advances, the operation stalled for several weeks but last Thursday Iraqi forces renewed their push from Mosul’s east towards the Tigris River on three fronts. Elite interior ministry troops were clearing the Mithaq district on Wednesday, after entering it on Tuesday when counterterrorism forces also retook an industrial zone. Federal police advanced in the Wahda district, the military said on Wednesday, in the 12th week of Iraq’s largest military campaign since the US-led invasion of 2003. As they advanced, many more civilian casualties were also being recorded, the UN said. Vastly outnumbered, the militants have embedded themselves among residents and are using the city terrain to their advantage, concealing car bombs in narrow alleys, posting snipers on tall buildings with civilians on lower floors, and making tunnels and surface-level passageways between buildings. “We were very afraid,” one Mithaq resident said. “A Daesh (ISIS) anti-aircraft weapon was positioned close to our house and was opening fire on helicopters. We could see a small number of Daesh fighters in the street carrying light and medium weapons. They were hit by planes.” Security forces have retaken about a quarter of Mosul since October but, against expectations and despite severe shortages of food and water, most residents have stayed put until now. More than 125,000 people have been displaced out of a population of roughly 1.5 million, but the numbers have increased by nearly 50 percent to 2,300 daily from 1,600 over the last few days, the UN refugee agency said. The humanitarian situation was “dire”, with food stockpiles dwindling and the price of staples spiraling, boreholes drying up or turning brackish from over-use and camps and emergency sites to the south and east reaching maximum capacity, it said. Most of the fleeing civilians are from the eastern districts but people from the besieged west, still under the militants’ control, are increasingly attempting to escape, scaling bridges bombed by the coalition and crossing the Tigris by boat. An Iraqi victory in Mosul would probably spell the end for ISIS self-styled caliphate but in recent days the militants have displayed the tactics to which they are likely to resort if they lose the city, killing dozens with bombs in Baghdad and attacking security forces elsewhere. Posted by: badanov 2017-01-05 |
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