Iraqi militia dispatches 3 ISIS Bad Guys
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Al-Hashd al-Shaabi troops have killed three Islamic State fighters as they attempted sneaking to the military supply roads, south Tal Afar town, a strategic IS stronghold in northwestern Mosul.
“The 33rd brigade killed three IS militants who tried to infiltrate the military supply roads, south of Tal Afar. They were targeted by a missile that killed them immediately,” the media service of the troops reported on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the troops declared destroying a mortar detachment of IS in Mosul desert.
Mosul is the Islamic State’s last stronghold in Iraq. Eastern Mosul was recaptured from IS in January, after a US-backed offensive was launched in October. A new offensive started in February to retake the west. The greatest focus is currently set on central Mosul’s Old City, which Iraqi commanders consider as the biggest prize in the security campaign.
Al-Hashd al-Shaabi, also known as Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), which consists of 66 militia groups, is considered one of the largest militias in Iraq. It was established in 2014 by a fatwa (religious edict) by the country’s top Shiite clergy to fight the Islamic State.
In late 2016, the Iraqi parliament recognized the militia as a national armed force.
Iraqi forces hunting stay behinds in Mosul
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Special Iraqi forces have been formed to search for Islamic State members hiding among civilians in eastern Mosul, a report has said as fears grow of the group forming dormant cells in the recaptured region.
According to al-Arabiya website, the special forces began their operations two months earlier, when Iraqi government forces took over eastern Mosul from IS.
The report quoted members of the forces saying they rely on intelligence information, experts, suspects confessions and documents left behind by the extremist group as means to screen the suspects and verify their affiliation with the group.
Security commentators had voiced concerns that IS might have left dormant cells inside the recaptured areas in eastern Mosul. The area has already witnessed attacks by IS suicide bombers, drones and gunmen in the weeks that followed the security takeover, leaving casualties among civilians and security members.
Iraqi commanders have said recently they became in control over 50 percent of western Mosul. Operations to retake the city launched in October 2016.
The recapture of Mosul could deal the deadliest blow to IS’s influence in Iraq, but observers fear the group could shift to lone wolf attacks and guerilla fights if lost the city.
Iraqi forces closing in on western Mosul mosque
(Reuters) Iraqi special forces and police fought Islamic State militants to edge closer to the al-Nuri mosque in western Mosul on Wednesday, tightening their control around the landmark site in the battle to recapture Iraq’s second city, military commanders said.
The close-quarters fighting is focused on the Old City surrounding the mosque where Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed a caliphate nearly three years ago across territory controlled by the group in both Iraq and Syria.
Thousands of residents have fled from IS-held areas inside Mosul, the militants’ biggest remaining stronghold in Iraq. But tens of thousands more are still trapped inside homes, caught in the fighting, shelling and air strikes as Iraqi forces backed by a U.S.-led coalition advance in the west.
Helicopters circling west Mosul strafed Islamic State positions beyond the city train station, the site of heavy back-and-forth fighting in recent days, and thick black smoke rose into the sky, Reuters reporters on the ground said.
Heavy sustained gunfire could be heard from the Old City area, where militants are hiding among residents and using the alleyways, traditional family homes and snaking narrow roads to their advantage, fleeing residents say.
“Federal police forces have imposed full control over the Qadheeb al-Ban area and the al-Malab sports stadium in the western wing of Old Mosul and are besieging militants around the al-Nuri mosque,” federal police chief Lieutenant General Raed Shaker Jawdat said in a statement.
Rapid Response elite interior ministry troops were advancing on the edge of the Old City, clambering over garden walls. Islamic State responded with rocket fire, streaking the sky with white smoke plumes.
“There are teams going into the Old City since yesterday,” said Rapid Response official Abd al-Amir.
Iraqi troops shot down at least one suspected Islamic State drone. The militants have been using small commercial models to spy and drop munitions on Iraqi military positions.
With the battle entering the densely populated areas of western Mosul, civilian casualties are becoming more of a risk. The United Nations says several hundred civilians have been killed in the last month, and residents say Islamic State militants are using them as human shields.
The senior U.S. commander in Iraq acknowledged on Tuesday that the U.S.-led coalition probably had a role in an explosion in Mosul believed to have killed scores of civilians, but said Islamic State could also be to blame.
As investigators probe the March 17 blast, Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend said increases in casualties were to be expected as the war against the insurgents entered its deadliest phase in the cramped, narrow streets of Mosul’s Old City.
Local officials and eyewitnesses say as many as 240 people may have been killed in the Al-Jadida district when a huge blast caused a building to collapse, burying families inside. Rescue workers are still pulling bodies out of the site.
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ISIS' health minister die in central Mosul
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) The Iraqi Federal Police command said Wednesday its forces killed the so-called “health minister” of the Islamic State in central Mosul’s Old City district, as operations proceed to clear the area from militants.
The service’s chief, Shaker Jawdat, said police managed today to shoot dead the Islamic State’s health minister, Saad Abu Shoeib, along with an indefinite number of companions, when they targeted their vehicle near al-Jumohouri Hospital in the Old City.
Jawdat said earlier on Wednesday that police forces had recaptured 330 square kilometers of western Mosul since security operations launched in February to retake the region from Islamic State militants.
The service’s chief, Lt. Gen. Shaker Jawdat, said in a statement that his forces took over 62 targets assigned in western Mosul since the start of the security offensive. The troops killed hundreds of militants and destroyed 286 booby-trapped vehicles belonging to the group.
Police forces evacuated 25.000 refugees from areas it had recaptured, Jawdat stated.
Iraqi forces recaptured eastern Mosul in January after three months of fighting to retake the city that fell to Islamic State extremists in 2014.
Police and supporting forces said recently they became closer to the Old City’s Nuri al-Kabir mosque, where IS supreme leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared the establishment of the group’s rule in Iraq and Syria. They had earlier recaptured the city’s airport and biggest military base besides several other districts since the launch of the campaign. The army’s leadership said recently government troops became in control over 50 percent of the region.
Google Map at the link
ISIS Big Turban, 3 others die in airstrike
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) An Islamic State member heading the group’s ‘grievances court’ in the strategic IS stronghold of Tal Afar town was injured, while his son and two of his guards were killed in an airstrike launched in western Mosul, a local source from Nineveh province said.
Speaking to Alsumaria News on Wednesday, the source said “a rest house of the Islamic State, located at the outskirts of Tal Afar, west of Mosul, was hit by an airstrike, leaving its official in charge of the ‘grievances court’ called Abu Hassan, Iraqi national, wounded. His son and two guards were killed.”
Tal Afar, west of Mosul (google maps).
Abu Hassan, according to the source, who preferred anonymity, used to work at the ‘grievances court’ in Mosul before being transferred to Tal Afar few months earlier.
Iraqi troops as well as the U.S.-led coalition troops resume their strikes against IS-held sites in Mosul.
Mosul is the Islamic State’s last stronghold in Iraq. Eastern Mosul and about half of the west were recaptured from IS since October, when a US-backed offensive was launched. A new offensive started in February to retake the west. The government troops have recently pushed deeper into the Old City, a densely-populated and -structured area which military officials view as central to the desired victory over IS militants.
Battles in the west are believed to be much more difficult due to the density of residential areas and the high number of civilians who the commanders believe are used as human shields by IS members.
Google Map at the link
22 die in western Mosul fighting
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Twenty-two Islamic State militants, including suicide bombers, were killed during an operation carried out to drive IS fighters out of Ras al-Jadda neighborhood, west of Mosul, a source from the Federal Police said on Wednesday.
“Twenty two IS members, including suicide bombers and snipers, were killed during an operation to liberate Ras al-Jadda neighborhood, western Mosul,” Colonel Zaher Hussein told BasNews.
Troops were able to gain control on the region after armed confrontations with the group.
In related news, an informed source from Nineveh police said IS militants targeted the freed areas in the south of Mosul using several missiles.
“Seven civilians were killed, 11 others were injured in a missile attack by IS against Okaidat, Bab al-Jadid and Bab Laksh, located south of Mosul,” Major Adel Khalil told the website.
Mosul is the Islamic State’s biggest stronghold in Iraq. Eastern Mosul was recaptured from IS in January, after a US-backed offensive was launched in October. A new offensive started in February to retake the west.
Retaking Mosul could ruin the Islamic State’s self-styled “Islamic Caliphate” declared in 2014 when the group occupied several parts of the country.
9 Iraqi soldiers die in western Mosul ground assault
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Nine Iraqi army members, including two officers, were killed while storming a new district in western Mosul to drive out Islamic State militants, a security source said Wednesday.
Anadolu Agency quoted Brig. Gen. Saad al-Sayer, from the army’s Counter-Terrorism Forces, saying the personnel were killed during an invasion of Yarmouk district, west of Mosul. He said troops advanced more than two kilometers inside the district after more than 13 hours of fighting.
Thirty-two IS members were killed in the encounters, according to Sayer. Three suicide attacks were foiled.
Intense fights are running in al-Tanak neighborhood, south of Mosul, according to Sayer, who said that initial information revealed that Abu Yahia al-Zahrani, a senior field commander for IS, was killed in the battles.
Iraqi forces recaptured eastern Mosul in January after three months of fighting to retake the city that fell to Islamic State extremists in 2014. Another offensive was launched in February to retake the western side of the city.
Police and supporting forces said recently they became closer to the Old City’s Nuri al-Kabir mosque, where IS supreme leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared the establishment of the group’s rule in Iraq and Syria. They had earlier recaptured the city’s airport and biggest military base besides several other districts since the launch of the campaign. The army’s leadership said recently government troops became in control over 50 percent of the region.
Google Map at the link