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Mosul Offensive News
 Iraqi forces advance toward central Mosul Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Federal Police and Rapid Response troops are advancing toward the south of central Mosul’s Old City, said Federal Police commander Lieutenant General Raed Shaker Jawdat on Monday. In a statement, Jawdat said “Federal Police troops are continuing their advance toward the southwest axis of central Mosul’s Old City. The troops, according to Jawdat, headed toward its targets at Qadib al-Ban and Al-Farouq districts in central Mosul. Mosul is the Islamic State’s last stronghold in Iraq. Eastern Mosul was recaptured from IS in January. The forces recently regained control over strategic areas in the western region after a US-backed offensive was launched in October. A new offensive started in February to retake the west. The government troops have recently pushed deeper into the Old City, a densely-populated and -structured area which military officials view as central to the desired victory over IS militants. Battles in the west are believed to be much more difficult due to the density of residential areas and the high number of civilians who the commanders believe are used as human shields by IS members. IS lost control on most of the cities it captured in northern and western Iraq in 2014 and 2015. Google Map at the link 27 ISIS troops die in western Mosul Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Twenty-seven Islamic State members were killed Monday in airstrikes and gunfights with security forces in western Mosul, while a new mass grave was found. BasNews quoted Maj. Ammar Qassem, from the Iraqi army, saying that clashes broke out between Iraqi forces and IS members near the town of Tal Afar, west of Mosul. He said the fights left dead 17 militants of multiple Arab and foreign nationalities. He added that the troops ran into a mass grave of former police agents executed by IS members. The victims belong to residents of Baaj and Tal Afar, according to ID cards found with the relics. Also on Monday, the Joint Operations Command said fighter jets from the U.S.-led coalition killed 10 senior IS leaders when they pounded group offices in western Mosul. Basnews quoted Col. Khodeir Saleh saying the strike targeted IS vigilantism and treasury bureaus in western Mosul, but did not mention the exact location of the strikes. According to Saleh, the militants set fire to 12 medical storehouses and a blood bank near the Nineveh health department in retaliation for the strikes. Iraqi government forces launched an offensive in February to retake western Mosul from Islamic State militants, having recaptured the eastern side of the city in January. 43 die in western Mosul airstrike Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Forty-three more civilians were killed Monday in airstrikes targeting Islamic State locations in western Mosul, continuing a bloody week for Iraqis stranded in battlefields. Anadolu Agency quoted an officer within the Rapid Response Forces, a special interior ministry force, saying the strikes were carried out by jets from the U.S.-led coalition at two separate areas, adding that those killed included women and children. No comment was made by the Iraqi command or the international coalition yet. According to the brigadier general, a first strike killed 23 civilians, as well as the targeted militants, in Bab Sinjar in central Mosul. Another strike at Tawafa region killed 20 members of one family. The coalition has been under fire over the past week due to accusations that its fighter jets caused more than 200 civilian deaths in strikes targeting IS militants in western Mosul al-Resala and Mosul al-Jadida districts. U.S. commanders said they were going to investigate deaths that occurred at areas of their troops’ operations. The Iraqi command had said it found no evidence of airstrikes at the areas where deaths had been reported, accusing IS militants of fabricating the reports to tarnish the security campaign against the group since October 2016. Iraqi forces deploy snipers to western Mosul Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi security forces started to deploy snipers on rooftops of buildings in western Mosul, in order to hunt down the Islamic State members, who are using civilians as human shields. Spokesman for the Joint Operations Command, Colonel Yahia Rasoul, said in a press statement that the Islamic State militants started to use civilians in western Mosul as human shields, and we are trying to shoot them by deploying snipers. The army forces are advancing carefully to keep civilians safe, Rasoul explained. We are relying on light and medium weight weapons and tools, including sniping, to target the Islamic State members away from civilians, he further added. Rasoul also accused the terrorist group of killing civilians, using booby-trapped containers, where its members gather civilians and force them to stay at specific houses, then detonate the nearby containers. Furthermore, Rasoul pointed out that the Islamic State is using this method to delude the public that Iraqi forces are targeting innocent civilians. Meanwhile, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) declared that nearly 400 thousand Iraqis are still besieged in western Mosul. Posted by: badanov 2017-03-28 |
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