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Western Mosul Offensive News
 Police: 60 Islamic State members, including senior member, killed in western Mosul Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi police said they killed 60 Islamic State militants on Monday during incursions in western Mosul, including a senior member. Federal Police chief, Lt. Gen Shaker Jawdat, said his forces killed 60 IS members while advancing in al-Farouq, a district near the Old City’s Nuri al-Kabir Mosque. He said the incursion was backed by fighter jets from the U.S.-led coalition and artillery strikes. Those killed included Aziz Fares al-Anzi, the group’s former chief vigilante for southern Mosul’s town of Qayyara, according to Jawdat. He added that 13 booby-trapped vehicles were destroyed while booby-traps in houses were deactivated. Two army soldiers killed during clashes with IS in western Mosul Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Two elite fighters from the Iraqi army were killed Monday during encounters with Islamic State militants in western Mosul, according to officers. Cap. Jabbar Hassan, from the army’s elite Counter-Terrorism Service, told Anadolu Agency that two members from the force were killed during clashes that broke out late Sunday and extended through Monday morning at the Tenek and Thawra districts. Hassan predicted that security troops would fully take over Tenek on Monday. Meanwhile, security sources were quoted saying Iraqi troops recaptured a third of al-Thawra, which troops invaded Sunday. Coalition strikes kill IS drone experts, destroy factory in Mosul Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Airstrikes by the U.S.-led international military coalition killed Islamic State foreign drone experts and destroyed a drones factory in western Mosul on Monday. The Iraqi military intelligence service said in a statement the strikes targeted a drones factory belonging to the group in Islah al-Zerai district. Islamic State militants have largely relied on bomb-supplied drones in targeting Iraqi security forces and civilians in both western and eastern Mosul. Some of those attacks targeted areas recaptured by Iraqi security in the eastern side, leaving some civilians and security members dead. Flooding cuts off aid supplies, escape route from west Mosul [IraqiNews] Flooding has made all bridges across the Tigris in and out of western Mosul impassable, cutting off aid supplies and escape routes for people fleeing the Islamic State-held part of the Iraqi city. With the bridges down, hundreds of civilians crossed the surging river on small wooden boats on Sunday, some carrying babies and all carting suitcases or bags full of clothes. They were some of the around 400,000 people still in western Mosul where Iraqi military forces are trying to dislodge IS from the Old City. Mosul’s permanent bridges over the Tigris river have been destroyed during the fighting, but the army had built two pontoon bridges which had allowed people to flee to safety in the east, and aid to get through to a camp for the displaced on the western side of the river. But since the bridges were closed on Friday, no aid convoy has reached the Hammam al-Alil camp, southwest of Mosul, the main arrival point for displaced fleeing the fighting, a camp and a U.N. official said. It was unlcear whether the bridges had become submerged or damaged by the floods, but soldiers blocking the approach roads said they were unusable. The camp, like other facilities in western Mosul, is supplied by road from Erbil, some 80 km (50 miles) to the east, in the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region where aid agencies are based. Issam al-Jibouri, a displaced resident who went by boat to western Mosul to take supplies to needy relatives, said: “We urge more efforts to reconstruct the bridges or bring larger boats.” Like others, he had to pay 1,000 Iraqi dinars ($1) for the brief trip. Iraqi forces control 75% of western Mosul: municipal official Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi government forces have become in control over 75 percent of the western side of Mosul as battles continue with Islamic State militants, according to a local official. Hossam al-Abbar, a member of the Nineveh province council, said in statements Monday that security troops were controlling 75 percent of the western side. He said battles are currently concentrated around the Grand Nuri al-Kabir Mosque in the Old City, where troops prepare to storm the area with snipers, hand grenades and assault rifles, excluding artillery and aircraft to prevent civilian casualties. Government troops, backed by a U.S.-led coalition and paramilitary troops, recaptured eastern Mosul in January after three months of battles. They charged at the western side in February. The Joint Operations Command said earlier this week its forces were controlling 60 percent of western Mosul. Police forces said Sunday they fully besieged the strategic Old City, home of the mosque where IS first declared the establishment of its rule in Iraq and neighboring Syria. Posted by: trailing wife 2017-04-18 |
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