Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Ramadan 17, 1445 H
broken clouds
weather
OMAN
23°C / 23°C
EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Iraq’s army encircles IS in Mosul’s Old City

1042057
1042057
minus
plus

FIERCE FIGHT: Iraqi forces have been inching forward in the face of heavy sniper and booby-traps laid by the fighters  -


ERBIL: Iraq’s army said it encircled IS’s stronghold in the Old City of Mosul on Tuesday after taking over an area to the north of the territory.


The army’s 9th armoured division seized Al Shifaa district alongside the western bank of the Tigris river, a military statement said.


The fall of Shifaa means the Old City in the eastern half of Mosul is now surrounded by US-backed government forces, deployed north, west, south and across the river.


Meanwhile, Iraqi forces said on Tuesday they were fighting fierce battles with the IS group and rescuing escaping civilians as they pursued their offensive against Mosul’s Old City.


Staff Lieutenant General Abdulghani al Assadi, a senior commander in the Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS), said the battle was proceeding as expected but that progress was slow.


“Things are good and the battle is going as planned,” he said.


“We have many obstacles — the nature of the land, the nature of the construction, the roads and the civilian population — all of which make us slow down our work.”


He said civilians were escaping the Old City, with up to 400 approaching the positions of Iraqi forces on Monday.


Federal police forces said they were moving forward on the southern front of the battle with support from heavy weapons fire and on the northern front had surrounded a hospital.


Iraqi forces launched the operation on Sunday to retake the Old City, the last part of Iraq’s second city still held by IS after a months-long offensive.


Commanders say the fighters are putting up fierce resistance and there are fears for more than 100,000 civilians believed to be trapped in the maze of narrow streets.


Iraqi forces have been inching forward in the face of heavy sniper and mortar fire and booby-traps laid by the fighters.


On Monday, three French journalists were wounded and Kurdish reporter Bakhtiyar Addad killed in a mine explosion while accompanying Iraqi forces in Mosul.


French public broadcaster France Televisions said on Tuesday that one of the wounded journalists, Stephan Villeneuve, had died of his injuries.


The push into Mosul’s historic heart on the west bank of the Tigris marks the culmination of a campaign launched in October by Iraqi forces to retake IS’s last major urban stronghold in the country.


The US-led coalition battling IS in Iraq and neighbouring Syria has backed the offensive, including with months of air strikes.


The loss of Mosul would mark the effective end of the Iraqi portion of the cross-border “caliphate” that IS declared in summer 2014 after seizing swathes of Iraq and Syria.


Earlier this week, Iraqi forces dropped nearly 500,000 leaflets over the city, urging civilians to stay indoors and escape if they can.


They have also stationed Humvees facing the Old City mounted with loudspeakers telling IS fighters: “You have only this choice: surrender or die”. The United Nations has said IS may be holding more than 100,000 civilians as human shields in the Old City.


Commanders have said the fighting is expected to be very difficult and could last weeks. — AFP


SHARE ARTICLE
arrow up
home icon