Iraqi army captures 2 village near eastern Mosul
(IraqiNews.com) Nineveh – The army’s 9th brigade announced on Tuesday liberating two villages, in eastern Mosul, from the control of the Islamic State, while emphasized that its forces continue advancing toward al-Hayy al-Arabi area, in the center of the city.
Deputy-Commander of the army’s 9th brigade, Brigadier General Nouman Khalifa, said in a statement, “Troops of the 35th and 36th regiments of the army’s 9th brigade managed, at noon today, to liberate the villages of Khowaytela and Shahrazad in Bartella area, in eastern Mosul, from the ISIS control.”
“Security forces are advancing toward al-Hayy al-Arabi area in central Mosul,” Khalifa added.
Yesterday, media officials with the Ministry of Defense announced, that the joint security forces are advancing toward the east coast of the city of Mosul from three axes.
Security force capture state TV facility in Mosul
(IraqiNews.com) Mosul – Iraqi security forces liberated on Tuesday the state-run Iraq Media Network’s office in the city of Mosul from the self-proclaimed Islamic State extremist group, state TV has announced in breaking news.
“Anti-terrorism forces have entered the city’s first districts, liberated the Iraq Media Network’s building in the east side of Mosul, capital of Nineveh Governorate, and raised the Iraqi flag above,” the report said.
An operation by Iraqi security forces, codenamed “We Are Coming Nineveh”, has entered its 16th day to liberate the governorate, IS’s last stronghold in the country. The campaign reached the east side on Monday, with IS abolishing reference to Mosul as the capital of its proclaimed “Caliphate” and evacuating its camps and secret prisons in the Ghazlani, besides taking out its wounded fighters from the city’s hospitals to an unknown destination.
In a related context, Abdel Karim al-Kilani, media advisor to the Nineveh governorate council, said Islamic State militants are holding 100 former security officers captives inside an ancient church in Babd al-Bid in central Mosul. He suggested that the group holds the captives for fear of a popular uprising against its fighters as Iraqi forces continue to successfully advance towards the province’s capital.
ISIS Top Dawg bites the Big One in Mosul
(IraqiNews.com) Nineveh – Iraqi media outlets reported on Tuesday that the ISIS Operations Official was killed in the west side of the city of Mosul.
Al Sumaria News stated, “The ISIS Operations Official, Abu Yakoub, was killed along with one of his aides, in clashes with Iraqi joint forces at al-Shallalat district, which the security forces invaded on Tuesday.”
“An unprecedented state of chaos is prevailing at the west side of Mosul due to the advance of large vehicles equipped with heavy weapons towards the east side,” Al Sumaria added.
Earlier today, Iraq’s state TV said, that Iraqi forces stormed into al-Shallalat district, north of Mosul, and also liberated al-Samah district, west of Mosul, while the Anti-Terrorism forces freed the state TV office in Mosul from the ISIS fighters.
Iraqi government forces, Shia paramilitary troops and Kurdish Peshmerga forces, all supported by a US-led coalition, have been carrying out a major offensive in Mosul, the last Islamic State stronghold in Iraq.
Iraqi troops continue to advance towards Mosul
(IraqiNews.com) Nineveh – Joint Operations Command announced on Tuesday, that the troops of the army’s 9th brigade are advancing toward the areas near the west side of Mosul, while praising the victories achieved by the Federal Police forces and Nineveh Operations Command in the southern battle front.
Spokesman for the Joint Operations Command, Brigadier General Yahya Rasoul, said during a press conference at the Joint Operations Command’s headquarters in Makhmur district, “Our heroes are achieving notable victories, and the army’s 9th brigade started to advance toward the areas of the west side of Mosul.”
“The heroes of the army’s 16th brigade are advancing toward their targets in the west side,” Rasoul explained.
Rasoul also praised the victories achieved by Nineveh Operations Command in the southern axis, in coordination with the Federal Police forces that liberated al-Shura area, one of ISIS important strongholds.
Iraqi kops to deploy once Mosul is captured
(IraqiNews.com) Nineveh – Iraqi Ministry of Interior announced on Tuesday preparing police regiments to control the liberated areas in the city of Mosul, while emphasized reopening police stations and Civil Defense centers in the liberated areas of the city.
Spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, Brigadier General Saad Moen, said in a statement, “The Ministry of Interior will handle the responsibility of the liberated areas in Mosul,” adding that, “The police forces reopened the police stations of Qayyarah, Shura and Hamam al-Alil, Hamdaniyah and Bartella.”
“The police regiments were prepared to control the liberated areas in the city of Mosul, especially the west coast of the city,” Moen added. “Civil defense centers also started to operate in the liberated areas,” Moen explained.
Moen also revealed that the Ministry of Interior is providing humanitarian aid to civilians in the liberated areas, while the Federal Police forces achieved notable victories and liberate 65 villages for far.
More from al-Manar
Members of the Iraqi army’s elite forces, the Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS), have recaptured a village and a television station on the edge of Mosul, in their latest push to liberate the northern city from the grip of ISIL terrorists.
“We finished clearing Gogjali and took control of the Mosul television station building,” Staff Lieutenant General Abdelwahab al-Saadi said on Tuesday.
Major General Sami al-Aridi also confirmed the recapture of the TV station in Mosul, located in an eastern district of the city.
He noted that the advance on Mosul came after heavy fighting near the state TV building as Iraqi forces tried to push into more urban areas of the city.
The TV station is the first important building in Mosul that has been retaken by Iraqi troops since the beginning of the liberation operation.
Also on Tuesday, a CTS commander stressed that the “true liberation” of the contested city had begun, with Iraqi troops being stationed at the edge of Mosul.
“Our final goal is arriving in Mosul and liberating the city,” Staff General Taleb Sheghati al-Kenani told the Iraqiya state television from Gogjali.
Turkey deploys tanks to frontier with Iraq
Additionally on Tuesday, unnamed Turkish military sources said the army had started deploying tanks and other armored vehicles to the Silopi area of Sirnak province, situated close to the border with Iraq.
Photos provided by the sources showed a long column of vehicles, including tanks, tank rescue vehicles and construction vehicles in single file on a dual carriageway.
Last week, Iraq’s Hashd al-Shaabi, also known as the Popular Mobilization Units, announced that its members had begun operations aimed at cutting supply routes between the Iraqi city of Mosul and the Syrian city of Raqqah by freeing Tal Afar, home to a sizeable ethnic Turkmen population.
However, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that his country was seeking to reinforce its troops in Tal Afar and vowed a “different response” if the Iraqi forces allegedly “cause terror” there.
Meanwhile, Turkish Defense Minister Fikri Isik said that the deployment is related to the developments in Iraq,
Turkey has “no obligation” to wait behind its frontiers and will take necessary measures if forces from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) take a foothold in Iraq’s Sinjar, he added.
Yet again more from al-Manar
Elite Iraqi forces were poised Tuesday for a first push into Mosul, after the prime minister warned terrorist groups who hold the city have no choice but to surrender or die.
Forces from Iraq’s Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) were fighting the so-called ‘Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’ (ISIL) in Gogjali, a village on the eastern edge of Mosul that they reached on Monday.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi appeared on state television on Monday wearing camouflage uniform.
“We will close in on (ISIL) from every place,” he said.
“They don’t have an exit, they don’t have an escape, they can only surrender — they can die or they can surrender.”
For the time being, the terrorists do have an escape route — to the west towards ISIL-controlled territory in neighboring Syria.
Paramilitary forces from the Popular Mobilization Forces have been advancing north in a bid to cut it but they still have some way to go.
They are not directly headed for Mosul, instead setting their sights on the town of Tal Afar which commands the city’s western approaches.
The PMF said on Monday that they had retaken a series of villages during their advance and surrounded others.
On the northern and eastern sides of Mosul, peshmerga forces from the autonomous Kurdish region have taken a series of villages and towns and consolidated their positions.
To the south, federal forces, backed by coalition artillery units stationed in the main staging base of Qayyarah, have been pushing north.
They have the most ground to cover and are still some distance from the southern limits of Mosul.
The initial shaping phase of the operation, during which dozens of villages and several towns have already been retaken from ISIL, is still under way.
Once it is over, Iraqi forces are expected to besiege Mosul, try to open safe corridors for the million-plus civilians still believed to be inside, and then enter the city to take on die-hard terrorists in street battles.
ISIL has been losing ground steadily in Iraq since 2015 and the outcome of the Mosul battle is in little doubt, but commanders have warned it could last months.
More from Asharq Al-Awsat
Iraqi troops entered the outskirts of Mosul on Tuesday taking the state television building and advancing despite fierce resistance by ISIS militants who hold the city, an Iraqi general said.
In over two years, this was the first time Iraqi forces have set foot in the city, Iraq’s second largest, as the two-week campaign to recapture the jihadists’ last main bastion in Iraq entered a new phase of urban warfare.
Artillery and air strikes pounded the city, still home to 1.5 million people, and residents of the eastern neighborhood of al-Quds said the ultra-hardline Sunni militants had resorted to street fighting to try to hold the army back.
Soldiers of the elite Counter Terrorism Service (CST) also stormed into the state television station in Mosul on Tuesday, the first capture of an important building in the ISIS-held city since the start of the offensive about two weeks ago, the force commander, Lieutenant-General Talib Shaghati, said.
“This is a good sign for the people of Mosul because the battle to liberate Mosul has effectively begun,” Shaghati said.
Iraqi troops, security forces, Shi’ite militias and Kurdish Peshmerga have been advancing on several fronts towards Mosul, backed by U.S.-led troops and air forces. Special forces units sweeping in from the east have made fastest progress.
“We are currently fighting battles on the eastern outskirts of Mosul,” CTS Lieutenant-General Abdul Wahab al-Saidi said. “The pressure is on all sides of the city to facilitate entry to the city Centre.”
He said CTS forces had cleared ISIS fighters from most of the eastern district of Kokjali, a neighborhood inside Mosul’s city limits close to al-Quds, on Tuesday, “so now we are inside the district of Mosul”.
“The special forces have stormed in,” Maj. Gen. Sami al-Aridi of the Iraqi special forces said. “Daesh is fighting back and have set up concrete blast walls to block off the Karama neighborhood and our troops’ advance,” he said, using the Arabic acronym for the ISIS group. Bombs have been laid along the road into the city, he added.
Inside the village, white flags still hung from some buildings, put up a day earlier by residents eager to show they wouldn’t resist the Iraqi forces’ advance.
Reuters reported residents speaking by telephone of heavy clashes since dawn and “deafening and frightening” explosions.
“We can see Daesh fighters firing towards the Iraqi forces and moving in cars between the alleys of the neighborhood. It’s street fighting.”
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Monday that Iraqi forces were trying to close off all escape routes for the several thousand ISIS fighters inside Mosul.
“God willing, we will chop off the snake’s head,” Abadi, wearing military fatigues, told state television. “They have no escape, they either die or surrender.”
Commanders have warned that the fight for Mosul, which could be the toughest of the decade-long turmoil since the U.S. invasion which overthrew Saddam Hussein in 2003, is likely to last for months.
The U.S. military estimates IS has 3,000-5,000 fighters in Mosul and another 1,500-2,500 in its outer defensive belt. The total includes about 1,000 foreign fighters. They stand against an anti-ISIS force that including army units, militarized police, special forces and Kurdish fighters totals over 40,000 men.
The United Nations has said the Mosul offensive could also trigger a humanitarian crisis and a possible refugee exodus if the civilians inside in Mosul seek to escape, with up to 1 million people fleeing in a worst-case scenario.
The International Organization for Migration said that nearly 18,000 people have been displaced since the start of the campaign on Oct. 17, excluding thousands of villagers who were forced back into Mosul by retreating jihadists who used them as human shields.
U.N. human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said ISIS fighters tried to force another 25,000 civilians from a town south of Mosul back towards the city on Monday. Most of the trucks carrying them turned back under pressure from patrolling aircraft, she said.
Yet again more from Asharq Al-Awsat
Kirkuk – Iraqi military officers gave conflicting statements on Monday on the battle of Mosul as one confirmed the Iraqi forces entered the city, while the other denied.
Iraqi troops entered the Karama district of the ISIS stronghold of Mosul on Monday, their first advance into the city itself after two weeks of fighting in the surrounding area to dislodge the militants, an officer said.
Commander of U.S.-trained Counter Terrorism Service told Reuters that forces entered the left neighborhood of Mosul and are close to the city center.
“They have entered Mosul. They are fighting now in al-Karama district,” the commander said.
Yet, Lieutenant General Abdul Wahhab al-Saidi denied that troops had entered Karama, but he did say that they were moving on Kukjali, an industrial zone west of Bazwaya that lies about 1km from Mosul’s municipal boundary.
The counter-terrorism unit resumed the offensive on the eastern front on Monday. It had paused its advance last week after it made gains quicker than forces on other fronts, to allow them to close the gap and get nearer to the city.
According to a military statement: “The operation to liberate the left bank of Mosul has started,” with the participation of units of the army’s ninth armored division, third platoon, and 16th infantry troop.
Counter Terrorism forces were under attack as they advanced toward the Christian town of Bartella. A warplane targeted a site suspected to belong to ISIS and used by terrorists to launch missiles, and a Humvees motorcade targeted an industrial area controlled by extremists.
Meanwhile, Iraqi Federal Police (IFP) and Iraqi rapid intervention forces with air and ground support from the international coalition, stationed in Qayyara military airbase south of Mosul, advanced towards the north. In addition, federal police continue to clear the town of Shura of ISIS militants after its liberation.
Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), Iran-supported, began a new front at the west axis. PMF’s operations do not aim to head towards Mosul directly, but towards Shiite-majority town of Tal Afar, west of Mosul. That would cut off any chance for the extremists to retreat their positioning to Syria or receive reinforcements.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Iraqi Joint Special Operations Command, Yahya Rasoolal-Zubaidi told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that the ninth division and counter terrorism are 2 km away from the center of Mosul. He added that the forces are stationed on the bank of Tigris river and awaits orders to enter the city.
Iraqi security forces, Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, Counter Terrorism Forces, and about 10,000 tribe fighters started the offensive, with air and ground support from the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS in Mosul.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi assigned the west of Mosul, particularly the strategic town of Tal Afar, to the PMF to cut any reinforcements and prevent militants from escaping toward Syria.