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Mosul Offensive News


Iraqi forces capture locales in Mosul
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Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi Federal Police recaptured Tuesday a railway station near western Mosul’s Old City as forces sweep through areas near the strategic Islamic State stronghold.

Alsumaria News said in a breaking news that Federal Police took over the Nineveh Railway Station, with operations continuing to clear western Mosul from IS militants amid tough resistance from the group coupled with inclement weather conditions. Other news reports said the police also took over the nearby Baghdad Garage.

The railway is part of Mosul al-Jadida (New Mosul), a district near the Old City which the Iraqi Joint Operations Command said took over on Monday.

Iraqi generals view Mosul’s Old City as decisive in realizing victory against IS in western Mosul. It remains, however, a serious challenge given its extremely narrow alleyways and dense population, factors that render the troops incapable of storming it with combat vehicles.

Iraqi government forces recaptured the eastern section of Mosul from Islamic State on January 24th after three months of battles, and recently said they became in control of 30 percent of western Mosul since another offensive launched in February to retake the region.

Iraqi troops have made remarkable victories in the western region by recapturing major government facilities, a military base and the city’s airport. Commanders also said they had cut off main roads between the city and extremists’ supply routes fro Syria and also from the rest of Iraq.

Iraqi forces capture parts of west Mosul
Musta hired on a new editor at Iraqi News: Google map at the link
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi army forces recaptured Tuesday a village in northwestern Mosul as operations press on to clear the region from Islamic State militants.

The Defense Ministry’s War Media Cell said army forces took over Sheikh Mohamed village east of the town of Badush, raising Iraqi flags there.

Pro-Iraqi government paramilitary forces also said they killed two suicide bombers from the Islamic State near Badush.

Al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Units) said through its media the force killed two suicide attackers and destroyed a booby-trapped vehicle the town that has been a stage for continuous operations against Islamic State militants.

Al-Hashd said the pair was killed before an attempted attack on the PMUs at the outskirts of Badush.

Iraqi forces have recaptured several villages and neighborhood around Badush since operations to retake western Mosul from IS launched in February. They also recaptured the town’s famous prison where hundreds of inmates were executed in 2014 by the extremist group.Al-Hashd said recently the forces discovered a mass grave of 500 dead people believed to have been executed in the prison.

Iraqi government forces recaptured eastern Mosul from Islamic State on January 24th after three months of battles, and recently said they became in control of 30 percent of western Mosul since the start of offensives on the western region.

Iraqi troops have made remarkable victories in the west by recapturing major government facilities, a military base and the city’s airport.

9 ISIS Bad Guys now Pining for he Fjords in airstrike
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Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Fighter jets from the U.S.-led military coalition killed nine senior Islamic State members in western Mosul on Tuesday, while the group continues to burn civilians’ homes, according to an Iraqi officer.

Col. Dureid Saeed, from the army’s Counter-Terrorism Forces, told Bas News that the strikes killed the militants in al-Islah al-Zerai district. He added that the extremist group continued to burn civilian-owned homes, with the latest round of fires arsons seen at ten houses evacuated from their dwellers in al-Rafai district.

Security officers and civilians say IS burn homes in a bid to create smokescreens that blur vision for assaulting aircraft.

Iraqi government forces recaptured eastern Mosul from Islamic State on January 24th after three months of battles. Security commanders recently said they became in control of 30 percent of western Mosul since another offensive launched in February to retake the region.

Iraqi troops have made remarkable victories in the west by recapturing major government facilities, a military base and the city’s airport. Iraqi and coalition generals have predicted the city to be free within six months from the beginning of battles. Though admitting fierce resistance from IS, the commanders believe the group, currently deprived from escape routes, have no other option but to fight to death.

Iraqi forces capture 3 new areas in western Mosul

Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) A security source revealed on Tuesday, that Federal Police and Rapid Response Forces managed to storm into three new neighborhoods in western Mosul, while pointed out to the killing of 13 members of the Islamic State during the confrontations.

Captain Tarek Jassim said in a press statement, “Forces from Iraqi Federal Police and elite Rapid Response Unit managed to storm into the neighborhoods of al-Khatuniyah, Amo al-Bakal and the area of the Great Mosque, west of Mosul.”

“The confrontations resulted in the killing of 13 members of the Islamic State, and injury of others,” Jassim added.

Jassim also declared that security forces opened safe havens for civilians in the besieged areas, and approached the fifth bridge that links between the two sides of Mosul.

Nineveh Province is witnessing extensive military operations, after Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced launching an offensive to liberate the western side of the city of Mosul.

Meanwhile, Security forces continue liberating the remaining areas controlled by the Islamic State in the province of Nineveh, as well as inflicting heavy human and material losses on the group.

Iraqi forces capture village in western Mosul
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Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) We Are Coming, Nineveh Operations Command announced on Tuesday liberating al-Jamaliyah in the western side of Mosul.

Commander of operations, Lieutenant General Abdel Amir Yarallah, said in a press statement, “Troops of the army’s 16th infantry brigade liberated al-Jamaliyah Village.”

“Security forces continue liberating all villages and areas east of Badush,” Yarallah further added.

Nineveh Province is witnessing extensive military operations, after Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced launching an offensive to liberate the western side of the city of Mosul, in addition to capturing the last stronghold of the Islamic State in the city.

ISIS Big Turban, 7 others die in western Mosul
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Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Commander of the 2nd brigade of Imam Militia (one of al-Hashd al-Shaabi brigades) announced on Tuesday, that a leader of the Islamic State group was killed, along with seven of his aides, by a proactive operation in western Mosul.

Karim al-Khaqani said in a press statement, “Forces from al-Hashd al-Shaabi conducted a proactive operation in Badush area, between western Mosul and Tal Afar District.”

“The operation resulted in the killing of the lslamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Iraqi, along with seven of his aides,” Khaqani added.

Khaqani explained that the operation was carried out based on accurate intelligence information.

Nineveh Province is witnessing extensive military operations, after Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced launching an offensive to liberate the western side of the

Iraqi forces eject ISIS from Mosul train station

MOSUL: Iraqi forces said Tuesday they recaptured Mosul train station, once one of the country’s main rail hubs and the latest in a series of key sites retaken from radicals.

Baghdad’s forces launched a major drive last month to oust Daesh from west Mosul, a battle that has pushed more than 80,000 people to flee their homes in less than three weeks.

Iraqi forces have taken back a series of neighborhoods as well as sites including the city’s airport, the Mosul museum and the provincial government headquarters since the operation began.
Some, including the museum which was vandalized by the terror group, have been heavily damaged, and it will likely be a long time before trains are again plying the rails to and from Mosul.

But retaking the sites are symbolic victories for Iraqi forces and also bring them closer to fully recapturing west Mosul, though tough fighting remains ahead.

Lt. Gen. Raed Shakir Jawdat, the commander of the federal police, said his forces have retaken the train station as well as a nearby bus station, both of which are located southwest of Mosul’s Old City.

The station was the “main corridor from the north to the south and carries goods from Turkey and Syria to Baghdad and Basra,” Salam Jabr Saloom, the director general of Iraq’s state-owned railway company, told AFP.

Because of its importance, the station was “exposed to many terrorist attacks before the entry of Daesh,” Saloom said.

The station was built in the 1940s and was “very important from a trade standpoint” as it was a “launch point for trains carrying goods to Syria and Turkey and back,” railway company spokesman Abdulsattar Mohsen said.

“But it stopped after the Daesh attack on Mosul,” Mohsen said, referring to a terror offensive that overran the city and swathes of other territory north and west of Baghdad in 2014.

Trains once carried passengers to and from Mosul as well, but have not done so since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s government by US-led forces in 2003, he said.

Iraqi forces are operating on the edge of the Old City, a warren of narrow streets and closely spaced buildings where hundreds of thousands of people may still reside.

The area, in which they will have to advance on foot when armored vehicles cannot enter the small streets, could see some of the toughest fighting of the Mosul campaign. Iraqi forces are also battling Daesh outside the city, with the Joint Operations Command announcing that soldiers had recaptured the village of Sheikh Mohammed, northwest of Mosul.

Some 238,000 people are currently displaced due to the fighting in the Mosul area, while more fled but later returned to their homes, the IOM said.
Posted by: badanov 2017-03-15
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=483402