FINAL FIGHT: Attacks have targeted government-held districts around Mosul that are still under IS control -
Mosul: The IS on Wednesday carried out a series of counter-attacks in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul where an advancing US-backed campaign is ongoing to dislodge the extremist group from its last key bastion in the country.
The dawn attacks targeted government-held districts around the Old City of Mosul that are still under IS control, security sources said.
Militants sneaked into the neighbourhood of Dandan in the western section of Mosul where the infiltrators briefly seized a local mosque and used its loudspeakers to announce the start of the attack, the sources said.
Iraqi helicopters bombed the mosque and silenced the loudspeakers.
Militarised federal police killed nine militants during clashes in Dandan, the sources added on condition of anonymity.
Three civilians were meanwhile executed by IS State infiltrators in Dandan. Government forces also repelled attacks by IS in the western Mosul’s districts of Nabi Sheet and Bab Toub. Four policemen were injured in a car bombing in Bab Toub, the sources said.
Fighting has been under way in western Mosul since February, almost a month after Iraqi forces retook the eastern part of the city from IS.
The western Mosul operation is believed to be more difficult because the area is densely populated.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al Abadi said only 4 kilometres in western Mosul remain under IS control.
“These kilometres are the last step before the final triumph is declared,” Al Abadi was quoted as saying by state-run newspaper Al Sabah on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, for Umm Mohammed and other residents of areas of war-battered west Mosul recaptured from IS fighters, this year’s Ramadhan carries a bitter taste.
“Our homes and cars have been destroyed, our family separated,” said the former bank manager in Iraq’s second largest city.
“We used to have a dream life and we’ve fallen all the way down to the bottom,” said the 38-year-old mother of two, declining to give her full name for fear of reprisals against family members left behind in districts still under control.— Agencies
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