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Mosul offensive gains fresh momentum as army attacks Daesh from northwest

By Reuters - May 05,2017 - Last updated at May 05,2017

A member of the Iraqi security forces flashes the V-sign as he holds a position on the frontline in Mosul’s Old City, on Wednesday, during an offensive to retake the city from Daesh militants (AFP photo)

SOUTHWEST OF MOSUL, Iraq/BAGHDAD — The US-backed Iraqi offensive to take back Mosul from the Daesh terror group gained fresh momentum on Thursday, with an armoured division trying to advance into the city from the northern side.

The militants are now besieged in the northwestern corner of Mosul which includes the historic Old City centre, the medieval Grand Al Nuri Mosque, and its landmark leaning minaret where their black flag has been flying since June 2014.

The Iraqi army's 9th Armoured Division and the Rapid Response Units of the Interior Ministry have opened a new front in the northwest of the city, the military said in a statement.

The attack will help the elite Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) and Interior Ministry Federal Police troops who are painstakingly advancing from the south.

"Our forces are making a steady advance in the first hours of the offensive and Daesh militants are breaking and retreating," Brigadier General Yahya Rasool, a spokesman for the joint operations command, told state television. 

Federal Police and Rapid Response Units advanced 1,400 metres and keep pushing ahead in the Hulela area towards the Haramat district northwest of Mosul. They were trying to reach the Tigris River bank and surround the Fifth Bridge north of the Old City, the Federal Police said in a statement.

A US-led international coalition is providing key air and ground support to the offensive on Mosul, Daesh’s de facto capital in Iraq, which started in October. 

It was from the pulpit of the Grand Al Nuri Mosque that Daesh leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi revealed himself to the world in July 2014, declaring a “caliphate” that spanned parts of Syria.

“An armoured division should not be going into narrow alleyways and streets but we will,” said Lieutenant General Qassem Al Maliki, commander of the 9th Armoured Division.

“There are sometimes troop shortages or orders that require us to do so and we will do our duty,” he told Reuters in an interview at a base southwest of Mosul.

“We will enter with Rapid Response Untis and CTS and we will enter as one front.”

 The Iraqi army said on April 30 that it aimed to finish the battle for Mosul, the largest city to have fallen under Daesh  control in both Iraq and Syria, this month.

Daesh’s defeat in Mosul will not mean the end of the hardline group which remains in control of parts of Syria and vast swathes of Iraqi territory near the Syrian border.

 

Shaping the battlefield 

 

Close US support should help the involvement of the armoured division and reduce the risk for civilians, US Army Lieutenant Colonel James Browning, the partnered adviser to the Iraqi 9th Armoured Division, told Reuters at the base.

“Everything I am trying to do is try to shape the battlefield for him,” Browning, a battalion commander from the 82nd Airborne Division, said referring to Maliki. 

“I am looking at trying to strike right in front of him as well as deep, even into Old Mosul.”

US support is essential for getting rid of suicide car bombs, known as VBIEDs, driven by the militants as road torpedoes before crashing into troops.

A typical conversation between Browning and Maliki would go like this: “What are you seeing on the screen? Do you see civilians?” Browning recalls Maliki asking.

 

“And sometimes I say ‘yes’ and he [Maliki] says ‘don’t strike’. I go through that process every time. We scan, we take a look, we make sure,” Browning said.

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