Iraqi forces capture Mosul district al-Muthanna
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi army’s elite Counter-Terrorism Forces recaptured on Friday a new district in eastern Mosul as operations proceed to clear the region from Islamic State militants, the operations’ commander said.
The forces managed to cross al-Khawsar river and liberated al-Muthanna district in the eastern section of the city, according to Lt. Gen. Abdulamr Yarallah, commander of the joint forces operations in Nineveh. He said forces raised the Iraqi flag on the district.
Iraqi government forces, backed by popular militias and a US-led international military coalition, have been carrying out a major campaign since October to retake Mosul from militants. The recapture of Mosul, IS last outstanding stronghold in Iraq, could deal a last blow to the group’s existence in the country.
Iraqi generals have said recently they had become in control over 70 of Mosul’s eastern section. But IS militants have regularly bombed areas they have lost to security forces since operations kicked off in October to recapture Iraq’s second largest city.
IS still maintains hideouts in the western section of the city that are 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 in Iraq 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.
Iraqi airstrikes hit targets in Tal Afar
[al-Manar] The Iraqi warplanes raided ISIL positions in Tal Afar in western Mosul, killing 20 terrorists.
The Iraqi defense ministry added in a statement that air raids also destroyed a number of ISIL weaponry depots and booby-trapped vehicles.
Source: Al-Manar Website
Iraqi forces advance in Mosul in night time operation
[al-Manar] Iraqi army and elite forces advanced against militants of the so-called ‘Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’ (ISIL) terrorist group in eastern Mosul in their first night-time raid in the city, a spokesman said on Friday.
Counter-terrorism service (CTS) forces pushed across a tributary of the Tigris river shortly after midnight and drove back ISIL militiamen in the Muthanna district, CTS spokesman Sabah al-Numan said.
“We used special equipment and had the element of surprise – the enemy did not expect us to mount a night offensive because all previous offensives were during the day,” he said.
US coalition warplanes carried out 19 air strikes in support of the assault, which killed dozens of militants, he said.
A second phase of the nearly 12-week campaign to drive ISIL out of its last major city stronghold in Iraq began last Thursday. The Mosul offensive is the biggest in Iraq since the US-led invasion to the country in 2003.
A 100,000-strong alliance of government and Kurdish security forces and mainly Hashd Shaabi units quickly overran ISIL in villages and towns surrounding the city.
The terrorists, who are deploying snipers and suicide car bombers and using civilians as human shields, are still in control of Mosul west of the Tigris.
Iraqi Forces Enter Mosul from North
Iraqi troops entered Mosul from the north for the first time on Friday, part of a new phase in the battle for the city that also saw elite forces bridge a river under cover of darkness in an unprecedented night raid.
A spokesman for Iraq’s elite Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS), which has taken the lead in much of the assault on the city, said troops had taken territory in an overnight raid across a Tigris River tributary in east Mosul.
The operations were part of a major new push launched last week to seize ground in the city, after progress in the nearly three-month-old operation had stalled for weeks because of a need to slow the advance to protect civilians.
Troops would soon “cut the head of the snake” and drive the ultra-hardline group from its largest urban stronghold, Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi said on Friday.
But the ultra-hardline militants, who are thought to number several thousand in Mosul, continue to put up fierce resistance using suicide car bombs and snipers.
They carried out more attacks against security forces some 200 km south of Mosul on Friday, killing at least four soldiers, and are expected to pose a guerrilla threat to Iraq and Syria, and to plot attacks on the West, even if their caliphate falls.
Iraqi forces have so far recaptured more than half of eastern Mosul, but they have yet to cross the Tigris to face insurgents who are still firmly in control of the western half of the city.
More than 100,000 civilians have fled, but 1.5 million people have stayed behind in the city, which commanders say forced the government troops to slow their advance.
The commander of the U.S.-led coalition backing Iraqi troops said this week the army and security forces had recently improved their coordination and were gaining momentum after advances had slowed in some areas in the first two months.
ISIS militants swept into control of a third of Iraq when the army abandoned its positions and fled two years ago. But the Iraqi government says its security forces have since been rebuilt and have proven themselves in battles to recapture the lost ground. Prime Minister Abadi praised the Iraqi army on the anniversary of its establishment.