35 Bad Guys die near Tal Afar
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Three drones guided by Islamic State militants were brought down and 35 group members were killed in Mosul on Thursday, Iraqi police and paramilitary forces said as operations continue to recapture the city from militants.
Federal Police services said three drones were brought down before they attacked security locations in the eastern section of the city.
In western Mosul, a local source told Alsumaria News that al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Units) had killed 35 Islamic State combatants who waged an attack on a PMU location near the strategic town of Tal Afar.
The deaths included an IS senior recruitment agent, nicknamed Abu Qaswara al-Shami.
Iraqi commanders said earlier this week they had recaptured 60 percent of the city’s eastern section. IS still maintains hideouts in the west close to its strongholds in Syria, but Iraqi generals and allied militia leaders say the group has become isolated from Syria and Iraq.
Security officials estimate the number of remaining IS combatants by 6000. But those are fighting against at least 100.000 government and militia soldiers.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said in December the battle for Mosul was entering a “decisive” stage, and predicted that the operations could realize final victory within two months.
Liberating Mosul, IS last outstanding stronghold in Iraq, could deal a final fatal blow to group’s influence in the country.
70 percent of Mosul captured from ISIS
(Reuters) Iraqi forces have retaken around 70 percent of eastern Mosul from Islamic State militants and expect to reach the river bisecting the city in the coming days, Iraq’s joint operations commander told Reuters.
Lieutenant General Talib Shaghati, who is also head of the elite counter-terrorism service (CTS) spearheading the campaign to retake the northern city, said the cooperation of residents was helping them advance against Islamic State.
In its 12th week, the offensive has gained momentum since Iraqi forces backed by a U.S.-led coalition renewed their push for the city a week ago, clearing several more eastern districts despite fierce resistance.
“Roughly 65-70 percent of the eastern side has been liberated,” Shaghati said in an interview late on Wednesday in the Kurdish capital of Erbil. “I think in the coming few days we will see the full liberation of the eastern side”.
The western half of the city remains under the full control of Islamic State, which is fighting to hold on to its largest urban stronghold with snipers and suicide car bombs numbering “in the hundreds” according to Shaghati.
The Mosul assault, involving a 100,000-strong ground force of Iraqi government troops, members of the autonomous Kurdish security forces and mainly Shi’ite militiamen, is the most complex battle in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
The commander of a U.S.-led coalition backing the Iraqi offensive told Reuters on Wednesday that increased momentum was due largely to better coordination among the army and security forces. He said the Iraqis had improved their ability to defend against Islamic State car bombs.
Although vastly outnumbered, the militants have used the urban terrain to their advantage, concealing car bombs in narrow alleys, posting snipers on tall buildings with civilians on lower floors and making tunnels and surface-level passageways between buildings. They have also embedded themselves among the local population.
HUMAN SHIELDS
The presence of large numbers of civilians on the battlefield has restricted Iraqi forces’ use of artillery but the cooperation of residents has also helped them target the militants.
“They give us information about the location of the terrorists, their movements and weapons that has helped us pursue them and arrest some and kill others,” Shaghati said.
In the run-up to the Mosul offensive, Iraqi officials expressed hope that residents would rise up against Islamic State, accelerating the group’s demise in the city. But mass executions seem to have discouraged widespread resistance.
An Iraqi victory in Mosul would probably spell the end for Islamic State’s self-styled caliphate, which leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared 2-1/2 years ago from Mosul’s main mosque after the militants overran the city.
But in recent days, the militants have displayed the tactics to which they are likely to resort if they lose the city, killing dozens with bombs in Baghdad and attacking security forces elsewhere.
An attack claimed by Islamic State killed six people on Thursday on the capital’s eastern outskirts.
CTS pushed into Mosul from the east in late October and made swift advances but regular army troops tasked with advancing from the north and south made slower progress and the operation stalled for several weeks.
The roughly 10,000 members of CTS, established a decade ago with support from the U.S. forces, are considered the best-trained and equipped fighters in Iraq.
Shaghati described the role of the international coalition, providing air support and advising Iraqi forces on the ground as “outstanding” and said Islamic State was crumbling under pressure.
“Daesh (Islamic State) devised many plans to obstruct and block us but they failed. We were able to surpass them and these areas were liberated with high speed,” Shaghati said.
“We have intelligence that (Islamic State) leaders and their families are fleeing outside Iraq.”
US airstrikes increase in Mosul
[ARA News] Erbil – The US-led coalition has launched thousands of airstrikes on Islamic State’s (ISIS) positions since the launch of the Mosul campaign nearly three months ago, helping allied Iraqi forces to capture more ground in the key city.
According to Air Force Col John L. Dorrian, Spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR)–the US-led coalition against ISIS, the air campaign hit hundreds of ISIS targets in Mosul.
Since the start of Mosul Operation last October, the coalition has destroyed more than 125 ISIS car bombs that had been prepared by the group to hit Iraqi and Kurdish forces in the vicinity of Mosul.
Furthermore, dozens of ISIS tactical units have been recently destroyed by the US-led coalition in Mosul and other parts of Nineveh Governorate, in northern Iraq.
Also, over 2,500 ISIS fighters have been killed either by coalition air raids or Iraqi shelling.
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. The US-backed forces have so far captured approximately 70% of Mosul city, which is deemed a de facto capital for ISIS in Iraq.