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| Iraq |
| Iraq army’s fresh assault targets Mosul bridge |
| 2016-12-07 |
| [ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Iraqi army units advanced from southeast djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... towards a bridge across the Tigris in the city center on Tuesday, in an attack that could give fresh impetus to the hard fought, seven-week battle for ISIS’s northern Iraq stronghold. Campaign commander Lieutenant General Abdul Ameer Rasheed Yarallah was quoted by Iraqi television as saying troops had entered Salam Hospital, less than a mile (1.5 km) from the Tigris river running through the center of Mosul. If confirmed, that would mark a significant advance by the army’s Ninth Armored Division, which had been tied up for more than a month in deadly, close-quarter combat with ISIS fighters on the southeast edges of the city. A colonel in the armored division said Tuesday’s assault, launched at 6 a.m., aimed to push towards the river and ultimately reach Mosul’s Fourth Bridge, the southernmost of the five bridges spanning the Tigris which splits the city in two. The bridge, like three others, has been hit by US-led air strikes to prevent ISIS sending reinforcements and suicide boom-mobiles across the city to the eastern front, where counter-terrorism troops have spearheaded the army campaign. The last and oldest bridge, built of iron in the 1930s, was targeted on Monday night, two residents said. The structure was not destroyed, but the air strikes made two large craters in the approach roads on both sides. Militants immediately began to fill the craters, the residents told Rooters by telephone. "I saw ISIS using bulldozers to fill the craters with sand and by midday vehicles managed to cross the bridge normally. I drove my car to the other side of the bridge and saw also ISIS vehicles crossing," said a taxi driver. Mosul is by far the largest city under ISIS control and defeating its fighters there would roll back the self-styled caliphate it declared in Iraq and Syria 2014 after seizing large parts of both countries. Some 100,000 Iraqi soldiers, security forces, Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and mainly Shiite paramilitary forces are participating in the overall Mosul campaign that began on Oct. 17, with air and ground support from a US-led coalition. Although it has made advances inside eastern Mosul, the army says it is battling the toughest urban warfare imaginable - facing hundreds of suicide car kabooms, mortar barrages, sniper fire and ambushes launched from a network of tunnels. Its advance has also been slowed by the presence of more than 1 million residents in the city. Iraqi forces capture 24 neighborhoods in Mosul city [ARA News] Duhok – The Iraqi Army’s 16th Infantry Division, backed by Counter-Terrorism Units, gained more ground in the city of Mosul on Tuesday, after heavy clashes with Islamic State’s (ISIS) militants. The Iraqi forces were reportedly able to capture 24 neighbourhoods in Mosul City after hitting ISIS’ key positions there, forcing the group to retreat towards the city centre. “Subsequent to clashes with Daesh [ISIS] terrorists, our forces have liberated 24 neighbourhoods and besieged several others,” the Iraqi Army General Command said in a statement on Tuesday. It added that their forces started dismantling landmines and explosive devices in the captured areas in the war-torn city of Mosul. “All roads and buildings in the liberated neighbourhoods are being cleared by our special forces,” the Iraqi command said. The Iraqi forces drove ISIS out of the western part of Mosul with the support of the US-led coalition, which launched fierce airstrikes on ISIS fighting positions on Monday and Tuesday. “The Iraqi Army now controls 50% of Mosul City,” Haidar al-Khalidi, a journalist accompanying the Iraqi forces inside Mosul, told ARA News over the phone. “The army has also tightened the siege on the ISIS-held districts downtown.” According to al-Khalidi, the major obstacle facing the US-backed Iraqi troops in the battle for Mosul is the fact that ISIS is using civilians as human shields “to prevent the army from using heavy weapons during the clashes”. “ISIS is using residential buildings as bases for its attacks on the Iraqi forces. Many civilians are based in the ISIS-held districts of Mosul, being used as human shields. However, the army seems cautious and tries to minimize civilian casualties as much as possible,” he told ARA News. Mosul is considered a de facto capital for ISIS in Iraq. The group took over the city in June 2014, and immediately afterwards ISIS announced its self-proclaimed Caliphate. On October 17th, 2016, the Iraqi Army and Kurdish Peshmerga forces launched a major battle for Mosul to liberate the city and its surroundings from ISIS. Since then, more than 2,200 ISIS militants have been killed, according to military sources. Meanwhile, the United Nations reported that ISIS extremists have been using civilians as human shields in the fight for Mosul. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) warned that it continues to receive reports of “serious breaches” of international human rights and humanitarian law by ISIS in and around the war-torn city. According to the OHCHR spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani, ISIS has been installing rocket launchers and placing snipers on the rooftops of civilian homes, while also threatening to kill those who refuse to cooperate. “These families are effectively used as human shields, placed squarely in harm’s way, caught between ISIS and Iraqi Security Force fire responding to rocket and sniper attacks,” she said. |
| Posted by:Fred |