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| Iraq |
| Mosul Offensive News: Iraqi forces move into Mosul's biggest district |
| 2016-12-13 |
| Iraqi forces regain control of 31 Mosul districts [ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Iraq’s joint operations command said on Saturday that counter-terrorism forces regained control of 31 neighborhoods on the left coast of the city of djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... They continue to advance in three other neighborhoods after inflicting heavy losses on ISIS during recent battles. The joint operations’ command also said that their forces are less than two kilometers away from Mosul’s bridges, adding that the coalition’s air force continues to destroy ISIS gatherings in east Mosul. Two days ago, Abdul Ghani al-Assadi, commander of the counter-terrorism apparatus, said the first phase of military operations in the battle to restore Mosul ended after 50 days of launching it. He added that his forces will completely control the left coast of Mosul after seizing the last few neighborhoods. Meanwhile, ...back at the Hubba Hubba Club, Big Shirley was still trying to snatch Nunzio bald-headed. She was already halfway there... security sources said counter-terrorism forces raided al-Taameem neighborhood and are fighting fierce battles to expel ISIS members from it. Iraqi forces move into Mosul's biggest district Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Forces on Sunday moved inside the district of Fallaghat, eastern Mosul’s biggest district, as part of operations to clear the eastern section of the city from Islamic State militants. The forces commander, Abdel Wahab al-Saedi, said in statements that the forces made incursions at the outskirts of Fallahat, preparing to clear the whole neighborhood from ISIS. He said the operation was faring well despite resistance from ISIS combatants. CTS commanders said two days ago they had become in control over 24 eastern Mosul districts, accounting for at least 50 percent of that region. The success comes as part of operations that launched in October to retake the city from ISIS. ISIS remains in control over most of the western regions adjacent to the Syrian borders, but Iraqi government and militia commanders say the city has become isolated from Syria, with supply routes for the group from Syria almost cut. Iraqi militia forces capture 2 villages in Mosul Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Al-Hashd al-Shaabi militia recaptured on Sunday the villages of Riziya and Ta Ghazal near the strategic town of Tal Afar, west of Mosul, from Islamic State militants. “Al-Hashd al-Shaabi forces totally liberated the village of Riziya from ISIS control after intense battles with terrorists,” the militia’s media services said, adding that a number of militants were killed in process. The military media service said also that al-Hashd al-Shaabi freed the village of Tal Ghazal, south of Tal Afar airport. Earlier on Sunday, Al-Hashd said that they had repelled a suicide attack by ISIS which relied on suicide bombers and booby-trapped cars attack. Tal Afar, 50 kilometers west of Mosul, is a vital target for Iraqi government and popular militia troops seeking to liberate Mosul from ISIS militants. The town, according to Iraqi security and militia commanders, had become isolated, depriving ISIS from supplies from Syria. Al-Hashd are reportedly preparing to storm the town’s center as part of a wide-scale operation to retake Mosul that launched in October. Police forces said Saturday they were preparing to open a new front against ISIS in western Mosul, while Iraqi joint forces are still working to retake eastern districts towards the eastern shore of the Tigris River. Airstrikes destroy bridge Nineveh (Iraqinews.com) US-led international coalition air forces bombarded on Sunday the Old Bridge of Mosul which links the city’s east and west, effectively disconnecting both sides of the Tigris River, according to a security source in Nineveh. “International coalition jets completely destroyed the old metal bridge linking the eastern and western shores,” said the source, explaining that the latest strike means that all of the five bridges linking the two sections were completely destroyed. Coalition jets had only inflicted damage on the last old bridge in the last strike in November, with coalition commanders saying the strike was only meant to render the bridge unusable. The bridge, which was constructed British occupation, is the city’s oldest, and Islamic State militants resorted recently to booby-trap it to stymie advancement by Iraqi security troops. On friday, the Defense Ministry’s War Media Cell said the number of districts recaptured from ISIS since operations launched mid October has so far reached at least 24. Military and police commanders said recently that government forces became in control of nearly 50 percent of the eastern section of Mosul. ISIS remains in control of most of the western region adjacent to the group’s strongholds in Syria, but Iraqi security commanders and Al-Hashd al-Shaabi militia leaders say they had managed to cut ISIS’s supply and escape routes to and from Syria. Iraqi commander wounded in mortar attack near Mosul (reuters) An Iraqi military commander was wounded and one of his bodyguards killed when Islamic State militants fired mortar shells at his convoy south of Mosul on Sunday, officers from the local military command told Reuters. They said a convoy carrying Lieutenant-General Jumaa Inad, head of operations in Salahuddin province, came under attack near the town of Shirqat where Iraqi forces are fighting to retake an Islamic State-held enclave. He had wounds to his head and arm and was flown to a hospital in Erbil, they said. The fighting around Shirqat, in Salahuddin province, is part of a wider military campaign against Islamic State in the north of the country. U.S.-backed Iraqi force has been battling for eight weeks to crush the militants in Mosul, the largest city under Islamic State control in Iraq and Syria. Inad was visiting troops in the village of Ganous, on the eastern bank of the Tigris river about 90 km (60 miles) south of Mosul. Iraqi militia group captures 3 villages west of Mosul Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Badr Organization announced on Sunday liberating three villages and repulsing an attack using two booby-trapped vehicles, west of Mosul. The organization said in a press statement, “Security forces liberated the villages of Tel Ghazal, Tel Majan and Shouwaira, as well as repulsing a suicide attack using two booby-trapped vehicles and Kornet Rockets, before approaching the forces, west of Ramadi.” “163 civilians were evacuated and an explosives laboratory was found in the area,” the statement added. Joint security forces, backed by Army Aviation and international coalition continue liberating the city of Mosul from the ISIS control. Iraqi forces in the east repel 2 ISIS attacks Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) An army officer announced on Monday, that Iraqi army forces repulsed attacks launched by the Islamic State extremist group (ISIS) in eastern Mosul. Captain Iyad Ziad said in a press statement, “The Islamic state’s terrorists attacked an army’s headquarters near the television area, in eastern Mosul.” “The [army] forces managed to repulse the attack, and also killed 13 ISIS terrorists,” Ziad added. “Four army soldiers we killed as well during the confrontations near the headquarters,” Ziad explained. Meanwhile, Iraqi forces repelled another attack, at dawn today, in the liberated area of Shokak al-Khadra, in eastern Mosul. The security forces also killed dozens of the Islamic State’s members. Iraqi kops prepare to join battle for Mosul (Reuters) Several thousand Iraqi federal police are ready to join the assault against Islamic State in east Mosul, a spokesman said on Monday, reinforcing troops who have faced weeks of fierce counter-attacks from the militants. The extra forces are being deployed as the gruelling U.S.-backed campaign to crush Islamic State in its Iraqi stronghold enters its ninth week. Elite army troops have retaken a quarter of the city, but their advance has been slow and punishing. The federal police units, around 4,000 strong, have been moved to southeast of the city, near an area where an army tank division last week made the deepest incursion into Mosul so far, briefly seizing a hospital used as a base by the militants. The troops were forced to pull back from the Salam hospital, less than a mile (about 1 km) from the Tigris river which runs through the centre of Mosul, when they were attacked by suicide car bombs, mortar volleys and machine gun fire. A spokesman for Iraq’s federal police commander, Lieutenant-General Raed Shakir Jawdat, said the three brigades from the police Fifth Division were ready to move in, although he suggested they might not go into action immediately. They are currently near Qaraqosh, about 15 km (10 miles) from the southeast edge of the city and are “fully prepared now to start the attack to control the eastern side of Mosul,” the spokesman said. However he said they were waiting for advances elsewhere on the eastern front, where elite Counter Terrorism Services (CTS) have made steady street-by-street progress, unlike last week’s dramatic push by the armoured division towards the hospital. “We are waiting for orders from the supreme commanders to start the offensive to defeat Daesh (Islamic State) and clear the eastern part (of Mosul),” he said. The CTS forces said on Sunday they had captured another district of east Mosul, the al-Nour neighbourhood. Accounts from Mosul are difficult to confirm since authorities have increasingly restricted international media access to the battlefronts and areas retaken from Islamic State in and around the city. POLICE DIVERTED FROM SOUTHWEST The police and CTS troops are part of a 100,000-strong Iraqi alliance which launched the campaign to retake Mosul on Oct. 17. It includes soldiers, security forces, Kurdish peshmerga fighters and mainly Shi’ite Popular Mobilisation forces, and is backed by a U.S.-led international coalition. Defeating Islamic State in Mosul, the biggest city it controls in Iraq or Syria, would be a crushing blow to the self-styled caliphate it declared in large parts of both countries two years ago, and might see it revert to more covert militant operations in Iraq. Iraqi commanders say progress has been slowed by the fierce defence waged by the jihadists, who they say have used a network of tunnels under the eastern half of the city and exploited more than 1 million civilians as human shields. The fight in crowded residential areas has also restricted the use of heavy weapons and air strikes from the U.S.-led coalition, the military says. For weeks, commanders have also talked about opening a new front in southwest Mosul to stretch Islamic State defences. But the despatch of the units to the southeast may delay that plan. The forces in Qaraqosh had been due to join other police units who have reached within 3 or 4 km (2 or 3 miles) of the airport on Mosul’s southwestern edge, and were expected to open the new front inside the city on the west bank of the Tigris. Nearly two months into the campaign, the United Nations says 91,000 people have been registered as displaced from Mosul and nearby towns and villages. That figure excludes thousands more forced as human shields back into Mosul by retreating militants. Most people though have stayed put, and 1 million are likely to be still living in remaining Islamic State-held areas of the city. With the militants largely sealed off, civilians are enduring increasingly siege-like conditions, with shortages of fuel, food and water as winter sets in. Iraqi Army, Hash Shaabi Liberate More Iraqi Regions West of Mosul [AlManar] Iraqi Hashed Shaabi fighters (Popular Mobilization Forces) liberated on Monday Tel Askaa area northwest of Tel Abta, and the village of Northern Abu Senam west of Mosul, and inflicted terrorists heavy losses. PMF website said “the PMF managed to liberate Northern Abu Senam western Mosul village after clashes with ISIL gunmen and killed dozens of terrorists,” in reference to the so-called ‘Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’ takfiri group. “PMF is continuing progress according to the plans until cleansing the western axis of ISIL control,” the website added. Moreover, 25 ISIL militants were also killed as they were going to escape from the village of Aziz Agha west of Mosul. In the meantime, PMF engineering corps started to lift containers from the village roads and to dismantle booby-trapped houses. Furthermore, PMF website received 200 families fleeing from the ISIL tyranny west of Tal Afar, pointing out that “Hashd Shaabi forces greeted those families, provided them with the necessary services and transferred all the families to safe places outside the combat zones.” It is noted that PMF leadership confirmed that ISIL gunmen are taking families as human shields and preventing them from going out in an attempt to disrupt the PMF progress to liberate the west of Mosul cities from the control of the criminal group. |
| Posted by:Fred |