| Submit your comments on this article |
| Iraq |
| Mosul Offensive News |
| 2016-12-08 |
| Airstrikes hit hospital in Mosul [ARA News] Erbil – The Iraqi security forces attempted to seize the al-Salem hospital in eastern Mosul on Wednesday amid raging conflict with Islamic State group (ISIS) in the city. The US-led coalition hit the hospital in renewed airstrikes on Wednesday, saying the hospital was an ISIS base and that no civilians were targeted. ISIS was using the hospital as a base for operations and command and control headquarters, the coalition said in a statement obtained by ARA News. After being hit by ISIS’ heavy machine gun and rocket-propelled grenade fire in a building on the hospital complex, the Iraqi forces requested immediate support from the coalition. “In support of the Iraqi Security Forces, Coalition aircraft conducted a precision strike on the location to target enemy fighters firing on Iraqi forces,” the US-led coalition said. “The Coalition complies with the Law of Armed Conflict and takes all feasible precautions during the planning and execution of airstrikes to reduce the risk of harm to non-combatants. We will continue to strike ISIS military targets in support of our partners in order to defeat ISIS in Iraq,” the coalition said in a statement. Mosul is the Islamic State’s de facto capital in Iraq. The group took over the city in June 2014, and immediately afterward announced its self-proclaimed Caliphate. On October 17, the Iraqi Army and Kurdish Peshmerga launched a major operation to liberate Mosul city and its surroundings. According to military sources, more than 2,200 ISIS militants have been killed so far. The Iraqi Army’s 16th Infantry Division, backed by Counter-Terrorism Units, gained more ground in Mosul city on Tuesday. Iraqi forces have reportedly captured 24 neighborhoods in the war-torn city, forcing the Islamic State back towards the downtown core. “The Iraqi Army now controls 50% of Mosul city,” reported Haidar al-Khalidi, a journalist inside Mosul. “The army has also tightened the siege on the ISIS-held downtown districts.” Al-Khalidi told ARA News that ISIS is impeding the army’s advance by using civilians as human shields. This tactic has “prevented the army from using its heavy weapons during the clashes.” “ISIS is using residential buildings as bases for its attacks on the Iraqi forces. Many civilians are located in Mosul’s ISIS-held districts. [They’re] being used as human shields,” al-Khalidi reported. According to Michael Stephens, the head of the Royal United Services Institute–Qatar, there are a few reasons, mostly tactical decisions taken early on in the campaign, which have led to too many civilians being present in areas of heavy fighting. This has severely limited the ability of the Iraqi forces to use artillery and call in air power. “Additionally, ISIS militants are well dug in, moving in amongst houses and launching traps and huge numbers of suicide bombers to slow down the advance. To date, ISIS has utilized some 600 suicide bombers to defend Mosul which gives them tactical advantage in small enclosed areas,” Stephens told ARA News. “There is little doubt that the fight ISIS has put up is more than was expected. The problem is made worse by the lack of available forces that can successfully close the noose around Mosul and get ISIS to divert resources away from defending the eastern side of the city,” he said. “As such, it’s placing undue pressure on those units operating in the eastern neighbourhoods of Mosul, hugely slowing down the advance,” he said. Nicholas Heras, a Washington-based Middle East researcher at the Centre for a New American Security, agreed with Stephens. “ISIS fighters are providing far greater resistance inside the city than the Coalition expected,” Heras told ARA News. “The Coalition, Baghdad, and the KRG [Kurdistan Regional Government] will also be very cautious with the campaign plan to take the more densely populated districts of Mosul, fearing an even greater outflow of refugees from the city,” he said. “With winter approaching, the humanitarian pressure on the KRG and other areas of Nineveh and further into Iraq could be catastrophic,” Heras concluded. Fighting continues in Mosul BARTALLA, Iraq: Iraqi forces battled Daesh militants deep inside Mosul Wednesday, edging closer to the River Tigris that divides the city and looking for a breakthrough in the seven-week-old offensive. The fighting to retake the Daesh group’s last major stronghold in Iraq has prompted a steady trickle of people to leave their homes, many taking refuge in camps where nighttime temperatures have dipped below freezing. The 9th Armored Division said it had retaken Al-Salam hospital in a push on Tuesday, the farthest the army has penetrated into east Mosul since the start of a broad offensive launched on October 17. “We advanced in Al-Salam district but the situation is difficult, there is heavy fighting,” Brig. Gen. Shaker Kadhem told AFP. “We took control of Al-Salam hospital, which was a command center for Daesh,” he said, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State or ISIS. The five-story building towers above the neighborhood and the jihadists had been using the upper floors and roof as sniper positions for some time, Mosul residents said. The elite Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) has spearheaded the drive into Mosul in the past month, retaking several neighborhoods in the east of the city. The army also punched into Mosul in November but its progress has been slower and Iraqi forces barely control half of the eastern side of the city. 'Surrounded' Kadhem said the goal of the latest push was to meet up with CTS forces on the banks of the Tigris in the southeast of the city. A senior CTS officer said the fighting in Al-Salam was fierce and the army had asked for backup. “The 9th Division’s situation is difficult and they have called for support. We are sending a regiment there,” the officer told AFP on condition of anonymity. “They are surrounded now in Al-Salam hospital... we are on the way so we can open a passage for them.” The Daesh-affiliated Amaq news agency said the radicals had carried out five suicide car bomb attacks in the area during the past 24 hours. It said the army was holed up in the hospital compound and had suffered heavy losses. Iraqi officers did not provide any casualty toll for the latest fighting. The Joint Operations Command supervising the fight against Daesh said CTS forces had retaken the eastern Mosul neighborhood of Ilam on Wednesday. Officers and analysts had expected the eastern side of Mosul to offer less resistance but the going has been tough and Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi’s promise to retake Mosul by year’s end has looked increasingly in question. Hashed Al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization) paramilitary forces have retaken significant ground in recent weeks on a western front targeting the town of Tal Afar, which lies on the road linking Mosul to Syria. Civilians affected Forces on the southern and northern fronts made quick early gains when Iraq launched its largest military operation in years but progress has been slow in recent days. One of the main factors hampering Iraqi forces in Mosul is the continued presence of hundreds of thousands of civilians, who either want to stay in their homes or are prevented from leaving by Daesh. The United Nations on Wednesday put the overall number of people displaced by the offensive at more than 82,000. That is still less than half the figure the UN expected before the operation was launched. It its latest situation report, the UN spoke of spiralling civilian casualties as Iraqi forces went house to house in east Mosul, attempting to battle jihadists and protect civilians at the same time. “Partners are rushing to bring trauma care closer to the front lines to give injured civilians the best chance of survival,” the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said. It said work was also under way to repair water and electricity infrastructure in east Mosul, where it described the current water shortage as “critical.” Hundreds of thousands of people in Mosul have gone days without drinking water and have had to boil water from boreholes to survive. The conditions for those massing in the camps on the city’s outskirts were hardly better, with the onset of winter bringing freezing temperatures at night. Heavy clashes in Mosul district as Iraqi troops advance against Daesh [Iran Press TV] Fierce festivities have erupted in djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... ’s al-Salam neighborhood, as Iraqi forces make gains against ISIS snuffies deep inside the northern city and advance closer to the Tigris River, which divides the city into eastern and western sides. The Iraqi army's 9th Armored Division announced the recapture of al-Salam Hospital in eastern Mosul on Tuesday. However, alcohol has never solved anybody's problems. But then, neither has milk... fighting continued on Wednesday in the al-Salam neighborhood, where the five-storey medical institution is situated. The ISIS elements were said to have been using the hospital’s upper floors and roof as sniper positions for some time. "We advanced in al-Salam district but the situation is difficult, there is heavy fighting," said Iraqi Brigadier General Shaker Kadhem, adding, "We took control of al-Salam Hospital, which was a command center for ISIS." He further noted that the latest push in Mosul was aimed at meeting up with the elite Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) forces on the banks of the Tigris in Mosul’s southeast. A senior unidentified CTS officer also said the fighting in al-Salam district was fierce and the Iraqi army had called for backup. "The 9th Division's situation is difficult and they have called for support. We are sending a regiment there," he said, noting that the soldiers "are surrounded now in al-Salam Hospital... [and] we are on the way so we can open a passage for them." Meanwhile, ...back at the abandoned silver mine, the water was up to Jack's neck and still rising. And then he smelled the smoke... the ISIS-affiliated Amaq news agency reported that the Takfiri ...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed... turbans had carried out five boom-mobileings in the al-Salam area over the past 24 hours. The Iraqi Federal Police also confirmed that several boom-mobiles were went kaboom!while bombers set off their explosives in the flashpoint district around al-Salam Hospital. According to an unnamed military source, three Iraqi soldiers were killed and 40 others sustained injuries in ISIS attacks on Wednesday. Advances on the ground On the same day, the Iraqi forces liberated eight villages in northern Mosul from the grip of ISIS holy warriors. The Iraq special forces further managed to wrest control of the al-Elam neighborhood in eastern Mosul. The commander of the Nineveh Liberation Operation, Lieutenant General Abdul Amir Yarallah, announced in a statement that the area was "fully liberated" and the Iraqi national flag was raised over its buildings. Yarallah went on to say that ISIS snuffies "suffered losses" without elaborating further on the subject. Mosul fell to ISIS in 2014, when the terror outfit began its campaign of death and destruction in the Arab country. The Iraqi army troops and allied fighters have been leading an offensive to retake Mosul since October 17. The Iraqi forces made quick gains on Mosul’s southern and northern fronts when the city’s liberation operation was launched. However, alcohol has never solved anybody's problems. But then, neither has milk... the Iraqi troops’ advance has been slowed down due to the presence of hundreds of thousands of civilians, many of whom are prevented from leaving Mosul by ISIS. The United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... said on Wednesday that more than 82,000 people have been displaced by the Mosul offensive. |
| Posted by:badanov |