Iraq forces fight muddy street battle in Mosul

MOSUL: Iraqi forces are fighting a muddy street battle against militants in southeastern Mosul, facing suicide bombers on the ground and a drone that can drop explosive charges from above. Baghdad’s forces have overwhelming firepower and numbers in Mosul, but the IS group has a vast city in which to launch ambushes, plant bombs and try to make the battle as slow and costly as possible. In southeastern Mosul, a small explosion sounds behind the front line, sending a member of Iraq’s elite Rapid Response Division falling to the mud-covered ground, his legs wounded by shrapnel. Security forces members train assault rifles and machineguns skyward, unleashing a barrage of fire at the small white drone that apparently dropped the explosive device. IS militants “are flying an observation aircraft that carries a bomb or a grenade,” Lieutenant Colonel Hisham Abdulkadhim, the commander of a regiment in the Rapid Response Division, explains. “Where it see units, it drops it,” Abdulkadhim says. — AFP