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| Iraq |
| Islamic State fights losing battle in eastern Mosul |
| 2017-01-13 |
| [REUTERS] The leaflet dropped from the skies over djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... urged Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... snuffies 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 snuffies 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 Rooters to show Islamic State fights losing battle in eastern Mosuloff the government forces' latest gains showed how the Lion of Islams, though vastly outnumbered and overpowered, are still putting up a fight for their largest urban stronghold. Beneath blankets thrown over their remains, the snuffies appear to have fought on even after being gravely maimed. One had a makeshift splint on his leg, and a big skidmark of blood indicated a Lion of Islam may have dragged himself into cover, or been pulled by the others. The lower half of one bully boy'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 snuffies 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. |
| Posted by:Fred |