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Iraq
Mosul Offensive News
2017-01-11


Army forces recapture al-Sukkar district

Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi army forces recaptured al-Sukkar district in eastern Mosul on Tuesday, said the commander of the government’s joint military operations seeking to retake the city occupied by Islamic State militants since 2014.

Lt. Gen. Abdul-Amir Yarallah, commander of operation “We Are Coming, Nineveh”, said in a statement that the army’s elite Counter-Terrorism Service forces raised the Iraqi flag above the neighborhood’s buildings.

The force said Monday they were getting closer to storming Mosul University campus, a major Islamic State stronghold in eastern Mosul.

Iraqi forces, backed by US-led fighter jets, popular militias and Kurdish troops, have been carrying out a major campaign since mid October to retake Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city and the Islamic State’s last urban stronghold in Iraq.

Iraqi generals said recently they became in control over more than 70 percent of the eastern section of the city and are hoping to retake it entirely so as to move onwards to fight for IS’s western hideouts. The current operations are the second phase of the campaign that began on December 29th after weeks of recess.

The Pentagon said through a spokesperson on Monday that the extremist group’s days in Mosul are “numbered”, and that its capabilities were waning.

The conflict has forced at least 169.000 civilians to flee the city to refugee camps.

ISIS destroys bridges in effort to stop Iraqi forces

Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Media officials with the Ministry of Defense (War Media Cell) announced on Tuesday, that the Islamic State extremist group detonated two bridges in the city of Mosul, in order to hinder the advance of security of security forces to the western side of the city.

The officials said in a press statement, “Today, the Islamic State terrorist group detonated the 5th bridge and the iron bridge in the western side of Mosul.”

“The Islamic State detonated the bridges in order to hinder the advance of security forces to the western side of Mousl,” the statement added.

The province of Nineveh is witnessing extensive military operations to retake the city of Mosul that was captured by the Islamic State in June 10, 2014.

Iraqi forces continue advance in eastern Mosul

Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi government forces made further advances in eastern Mosul on Tuesday, recapturing one more district and preparing to invade another as operations continue to drive off Islamic State militants.

A security source was quoted by Sahfaaq news website as saying that the forces recaptured al-Dhubbat district, in the northeast, and were preparing to invade the nearby al-Maliya neighborhood.

Also in the north, the website added that government troops brought down IS’s biggest flag, a five-meter tall post erected at a “festivities arena”. Troops are also proceeding towards a so-called Al-Majmoua al-Thaqafiya area.

Meanwhile, Iranian news agency Tasnim said forces liberated Masjid al-Saegh area, and were engaging in violent encounters with IS militants on their way to al-Andalus district.

Federal Police commander, Raed Shaker Jawdat, said his forces moved through Sumer neighborhood in the southeast and opened safe pathways to evacuate civilians from the area. He said IS militants were “indiscriminately shelling residential areas to take revenge from the people.”

Earlier on Tuesday, the army’s elite Counter-Terrorism Service said they took over al-Sukkar district.

Iraqi forces, backed by US-led fighter jets, popular militias and Kurdish troops, have been carrying out a major campaign since mid October to retake Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city and the Islamic State’s last urban stronghold in Iraq.

Iraqi generals said recently they became in control over more than 70 percent of the eastern section of the city and are hoping to retake it entirely so as to move onwards to fight for IS’s western hideouts. The current operations are the second phase of the campaign that began on December 29th after weeks of recess.

The Pentagon said through a spokesperson on Monday that the extremist group’s days in Mosul are “numbered”, and that its capabilities were waning.

The conflict has forced at least 169.000 civilians to flee the city to refugee camps.

ISIS corpses in Mosul pile up like cord wood

(Reuters) The leaflet dropped from the skies over Mosul urged Islamic State militants to give themselves up. “Who will look after your families if you are killed?” read the message, found on the ground in an apartment complex on the city’s northern edge.

Sent by the Iraqi government, it appears to have been ignored.

At the bottom of a stairwell in one of the apartment blocks lay the corpses of three militants who must have known they would lose against the overwhelming numbers and firepower of their opponents.

Iraqi forces backed by a U.S.-led coalition took the Hadba apartment complex several days ago as the campaign to drive Islamic State out of Mosul gains momentum in the city’s east.

A tour arranged for Reuters to show off the government forces’ latest gains showed how the militants, though vastly outnumbered and overpowered, are still putting up a fight for their largest urban stronghold.

Beneath blankets thrown over their remains, the militants appear to have fought on even after being gravely wounded.

One had a makeshift splint on his leg, and a big skidmark of blood indicated a militant may have dragged himself into cover, or been pulled by the others.

The lower half of one insurgent’s body was blown off before he had a chance to detonate the suicide belt still tied around his waist.

“We came from here and hit him with a rocket,” said an Iraqi soldier, retracing his steps through the outdoor passage they used to come up on the militants from behind.

The complex is made up of more than 160 blocks — the three-storey buildings now giving Iraqi forces an added advantage over the enemy, which is being pushed back towards the Tigris river bisecting Mosul from north to south.

Some Iraqi units further south reached the banks of the Tigris over the weekend — a milestone in the offensive that began when the elite counterterrorism service (CTS) pushed into Mosul from the east in October.

The western half of the city remains fully under Islamic State control and retaking it from Islamic State is likely to be complicated by narrow alleys.

TRIP WIRES
The pastel-colored apartment blocks show marks of heavy fighting and the sound of gunfire was audible nearby.

Spirits were high among the soldiers, who broke into song and dance for the camera, and posed for photographs with Islamic State flags they had torn down.

Victory in Mosul would deal a symbolic and perhaps lethal blow to Islamic State’s self-styled caliphate.

But the group has recently demonstrated the insurgent tactics to which it will likely revert as it loses territory. Dozens of civilians have been killed in bomb blasts in Baghdad since the start of the year and the militants have attacked security forces in areas retaken from them.

Touring the compound, Major-General Najm al-Jubbouri said Islamic State had hit back with four to five car bombs during and after the battle, but they were detonated before hitting their target.

Islamic State newsletters were scattered on the ground outside the entrance to the mosque inside the compound, hailing attacks carried out by its fighters against Iraqi forces.

A ground floor apartment served as a real estate office for Islamic State, which rented out the apartments of those who fled to people displaced from other parts of Mosul or beyond during the two years they ruled over the city.

Another Islamic State flyer warned civilians against informing the security forces about the location of militants.

All civilians were evacuated during and after the battle and government soldiers now appear in the windows of their apartments.

Sheets are stretched across the balconies — in some cases for privacy, but also so that Islamic State snipers could see Iraqi forces without being spotted.

“Some of the doors were rigged with trip wires,” said the head of one of the battalions that retook the apartments, whose name, Colonel Ibrahim, has been graffitied on the walls by his men.

He said his men had broken into one apartment and found a discarded suicide belt and a cup of tea, still steaming hot, suggesting at least one of the militants chose to flee rather than fight on.

ISIS Australian leader bites the dust in airstrike in Mosul
I didn't even know ISIS had an Australian brigade
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) A security source in Nineveh Province revealed that the Islamic State’s Commander of the Australian Brigade was killed, along with three of his aides, north of the province, Alsumaria News reported on Tuesday.

The source said, “Iraqi Air Force, with the cooperation of the military intelligence, conducted an air strike on Islamic State’s headquarters of Australian leaders in al-Hadba neighborhood, north of Nineveh, destructing the headquarters completely, as well as killing all leaders inside it.”

“The air strike also killed the commander of Islamic State’s Australian Brigade, Khaled Sharouf, also known as Abu Mosab al-Australi, along with his aides Mohamed Abdel Karim (Abu Waleed al-Australi), Abdullah Ismail (Abu Aisha) and Sedrouf (Abu Taiba al-Australi),” the source added.

The province of Nineveh is witnessing extensive military operations to retake the city of Mosul that was captured by the Islamic State in June 10, 2014.
Posted by:badanov

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