MOSUL: Heavy rain slowed Iraqi government forces battling IS on Thursday around Mosul’s Old City, where militants holed up in narrow alleyways and homes resisted with sniper fire, suicide attacks and car bombs.
Troops from the federal police and elite Rapid Response units were about 500 metres from the Al Nuri Mosque from where IS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi declared a caliphate spanning Iraq and Syria in 2014.
The black flag was clearly visible draped from the mosque’s famous leaning minaret.
The army and security forces have made significant gains in recent days in the battle that started in October, seizing a main bridge over the Tigris river and advancing towards the mosque.
“We are holding positions we took yesterday. There is a lot of resistance in that area with snipers and car bombs,” Federal Police Major General Haider Dhirgham said on Thursday.
The capture of Al Nuri Mosque would be a huge symbolic victory as well as a concrete gain.
“It’s important for them, it’s where they declared their state,” Dhirgham said.
Mosul has been the hardline group’s main urban stronghold in Iraq but they have steadily lost ground since the offensive began and Iraqi leaders say the battle is reaching its final stages.
Earlier on Thursday, government forces had been attempting to encircle the Old City to bottle up IS fighters. Several more areas of western Mosul had been recaptured, including the hospital, over Wednesday and Thursday morning but officers said progress was slowed by car bombs and booby-traps in houses and alleyways. Then the advance was put on hold due to bad weather.
IS hit back with sporadic attacks on government positions, including mortar fire. Government forces responded with mortars and helicopter gunships strafed militant positons from above.
Police said they had killed nine militants who tried to counter-attack one of their positions with rocket-propelled grenades.
A Federal Police officer said commanders were meeting to adjust their plans for tackling the Old City.
“The new offensive plans should adapt with the difficult terrain of the complicated, narrow alleys,” he said. “The tight roads prevent us from using armoured vehicles and that will definitely leave our soldiers vulnerable to enemy fire. New plans under study will tackle this issue.”
The need to ensure the safety of civilians, many of them hungry from a lack of provisions and traumatised by living under IS’s harsh rule, was also a priority.
As many as 6,000 IS fighters remained in Mosul, including other Arab nationalities and foreigners, Dhirgham said, talking inside the city at a police forward base as refugees trudged through the muddy streets and wrecked houses.
IS bombers had driven explosive-rigged cars at troops, he said. There had been three such attacks on Thursday morning. Troops have also seized buildings in which suicide vehicles were being prepared.
“The enemy... has started to set fire to houses which means that they are on the retreat. They have destroyed homes and have destroyed families,” Dhirgham said. Mosul has served as IS’s de facto capital since Baghdadi proclaimed himself head of a caliphate in July 2014.
Its recapture by the government would drive the remnants of the IS army into the hinterlands. — Reuters
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