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Mosul Offensive News
 ISIS attack stopped in MosulNineveh (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi army forces fought off an attack by Islamic State in northeastern Mosul, while an IED explosion killed three children in the western region, military and security sources said Tuesday. Major Ali Mohsen, form the army’s elite Counter-Terrorism Forces, was quoted by Bas News as saying that Islamic State militants carried out a wide-scale attack on the villages of Geliokhana and Rashidiya, northeast of the city, which were among the last few regions security forces recaptured from the extremist group in the east. “The group launched the attack using suicide bombers and booby-trapped vehicles,” said Mohsen, who added that army forces, backed by aircraft from the U.S.-led international military coalition, managed to hold them off. Security forces intensified their deployment in the area after the attack, said Mohsen, who added that forces are also besieging villages in the west preparing to invade them. In western Mosul, a local source said three children were killed when an explosive device planted by Islamic State militants in their home exploded. The source, who asked not to be named, told Alsumaria News that the house belonged to a security agent who had previously been executed by IS militants two years earlier. “It was booby-trapped a while ago by the group as part of its strategy to booby-trap houses as security forces near launching operations to retake western Mosul,” said the source. “The reason the children entered the home is still a mystery,” he added. The Iraqi government said on January 24th its forces became in full control over eastern Mosul after three months of battles with IS. Preparations are running to invade the group-held west. Iraqi airstrikes targets ISIS boats, 17 ISIS fighters die Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi fighter jets killed 17 Islamic State militants and destroyed six of their boats in western Mosul, the defense ministry media said Tuesday. The defense ministry’s War Media Cell said the strike, which targeted the district of Badush, was carried out based on intelligence information. Six vehicles belonging to the group were also burned in the strike, according to the media service. The Iraqi government said on January 24th its forces, backed by U.S.-led international coalition jets and advisers, recaptured the whole of eastern Mosul from Islamic State militants after three months of battles that left 3300 extremists killed. The forces are preparing to invade the west where the extremist group still maintains a majority of territory near its strongholds in Syria. Iraqi and U.S. generals are predicting a more difficult battle there due to the density of residential areas and concerns for the safety of civilians. Several group fighters have reportedly fled the eastern section to the west via the Tigris River, which bisects the city, and many either drowned or were shot dead by security troops. The conflict in Mosul has left 191.000 civilians displaced at refugee camps. The United Nations had voiced concerns for the fate of 750.000 civilians still stranded in IS-held districts in western Mosul. ISIS Big Turban dies in US airstrike [ARA News] Erbil – A US-led coalition airstrike killed a number of Islamic State’s (ISIS) militants, including a jihadist leader, in the Iraqi city of Mosul on Tuesday. At least five ISIS members were killed, including the ISIS security official Sarhan al-Souri, when a US airstrike hit western Mosul. Informed local sources told ARA News that the air raid targeted an ISIS security office in the Islah Ziraai neighbourhood in the western part of Mosul city, in Iraq’s northwestern Nineveh Governorate. Sarhan al-Souri, a Syrian jihadist, was the chief of the ISIS-led Security Commission of Western Mosul. “Al-Souri was responsible for torturing and executing dozens of innocent people in Mosul,” the head of Nineveh media centre, Raafat al-Zarari, told ARA News. According to Zarari, al-Souri was a direct target for Tuesday’s airstrike. “The elimination of senior ISIS officials is a top priority for the US-led coalition in the Mosul air campaign at the moment,” he said. Posted by: badanov 2017-02-01 |
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