Iraqi forces storm Old City of Islamic State-held Mosul, U.S. reports progress

By Hamuda Hassan and Maher Chmaytelli

 

Members of the Iraqi Army's 9th Armoured Division are photographed with an Islamic State flag, claimed after fighting with Islamic State militants in western Mosul, Iraq June 17, 2017. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis

 

MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi forces began storming the Islamic State-held Old City of Mosul on Sunday, an assault they hope will be the last in the eight-month campaign to seize the militants' stronghold.

 

The historic district is the last still under control of the militants in the city, which used to be the Iraqi capital of the group, also known as ISIS.

 

"Iraqi forces early this morning breach into old Mosul, the final ISIS-held district in the city," Brett McGurk, the U.S. envoy to the international coalition fighting Islamic State, said on Twitter. "We are proud to stand with them."

 

It is a densely-populated maze of narrow alleyways where fighting is often conducted house by house.

 

About 100,000 civilians remain trapped there in harrowing conditions, with little food, water and medicine and limited access to hospitals, according to the United Nations.

 

"This will be a terrifying time for around 100,000 people still trapped in Mosul's Old City ... now at risk of getting caught up in the fierce street fighting to come," the International Rescue Committee (IRC) said in a statement.

 

"This is the final chapter" in the offensive to take Mosul, said Lieutenant General Abdul Ghani al-Assadi, commander of the Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) elite units spearheading the assault.

 

A U.S.-led international coalition is providing air and ground support to the campaign.

 

Several air strikes during the day hit a medical complex located just north of the Old City, alongside the western bank of the Tigris river, a Reuters TV reporter said.

 

Armoured vehicles were heading toward the frontline north of the Old City as shelling and gunfire could be heard.

 

The medical complex, housing the two biggest hospitals of Mosul, is still held in part by the militants who are using its buildings as sniper outposts.

 

Islamic State's security services chief in the Old City, Kanaan Jiyad Abdullah, also known as Abu Amna, was killed in the morning clashes, Hisham al-Hashimi, who advises several Middle East governments on Islamic State affairs, told Reuters.

 

The Iraqi government initially hoped to take Mosul by the end of 2016, but the campaign took longer as militants reinforced positions in the middle of civilians to fight back.

 

Islamic State is also using suicide car and motorbike bombs, booby traps and sniper and mortar fire against the troops.

 

"The buildings of the old town are particularly vulnerable to collapse even if they aren't directly targeted, which could lead to even more civilian deaths than the hundreds killed so far in air strikes across the rest of the city," the IRC said.

 

"We are trying to be very careful, using only light and medium weapons ... to avoid casualties among civilians," CTS commander Major General Maan Saadi told Iraqi state TV.

 

STREET FIGHTING

 

Hundreds of civilians were killed near the frontlines in the past three weeks while fleeing the Old City, as Iraqi forces could not fully secure exit corridors.

 

"We expect thousands of families to escape from the Old City. We made all preparations to evacuate them from the frontlines," army colonel Salam Faraj told Reuters.

 

Islamic State snipers are shooting at families trying to flee on foot or by boat across the Tigris River, as part of a tactic to keep civilians as human shields, the United Nations said on Friday.

 

The Iraqi army estimates that the number of Islamic State fighters in the Old City does not exceed 300, down from nearly 6,000 when the battle of Mosul started on Oct. 17.

 

"The operation now is about street fighting. Air and artillery strikes will be limited because the area is heavily populated and the buildings fragile," CTS spokesman Sabah al-Numan told al-Hadath TV in Dubai.

 

Iraqi government forces regained eastern Mosul in January, then a month later began the offensive on the side located west of the Tigris, which includes the Old City.

 

The fall of Mosul would, in effect, mark the end of the Iraqi half of the "caliphate" that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared in a speech from a mosque in the Old City three years ago and that had covered parts of Iraq and Syria.

 

The group is also retreating in Syria, mainly in the face of a U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led coalition. Its capital there, Raqqa, is being besieged.

 

Baghdadi has left the fighting in Mosul and Raqqa to field commanders, to become effectively a fugitive focused on his own survival in the border area between Iraq and Syria.

 

U.S. air strikes have killed several commanders of the group over the past two years, including Abu Omar al-Shishani, a top military commander, chief propagandist Abu Mohammed al-Adani and Abu Ali al-Anbari, the former top civilian administrator.

 

About 200,000 people were estimated to be trapped behind Islamic State lines in Mosul in May, but the number has declined as government forces have thrust further into the city.

 

About 850,000 people, more than a third of the pre-war population of the northern Iraqi city, have fled, seeking refuge with friends and relatives or in camps, according to aid groups.

 

(Writing by Maher Chmaytelli in Erbil, Iraq; Additional reporting by Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad and Ahmed Tolba in Cairo; Editing by Mark Potter and Edmund Blair)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-06-19

Oohrah!

I hope they manage to give every IS fighter the "martyr's" death they deserve. No agreements to let them slip away as before.

Edited June 19, 20179 yr by thaibeachlovers

47 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I hope they manage to give every IS fighter the "martyr's" death they deserve. No agreements to let them slip away as before.

 

Not to worry. The inept one in the White House is on the case. 

err, I thought he was...

 

Trump: I don't give a specific ISIS plan because I don't want enemies to know it

 

"Donald Trump brushed off his lack of a specific policy to defeat the Islamic State terror group on Wednesday night, claiming he had a plan but did not want to broadcast it to the United States' enemies."

 

"Trump also had few specifics to offer when asked by a veteran about what he would do in the Middle East once ISIS was defeated."

 

"After a rambling answer about what he deemed the Obama administration's failures in the Middle East, he pledged to "take the oil" to prevent groups like ISIS gaining control of the resource."

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/09/07/trump-i-dont-give-a-specific-isis-plan-because-i-dont-want-enemies-to-know-it.html

 

 

Donald Trump signs executive order calling for a plan to defeat Isis within 30 days

 

"Donald Trump has ordered his generals and security advisors to deliver him within a month a plan on how to defeat Isis."

 

"The action regarding the NSC will outline new procedures and organisational structure of the organisation to better adapt to the threats, reports said."

 

"The NSC is led by retired Lt Gen Michael Flynn, who spent much of Saturday in the Oval Office as Mr Trump had scheduled phone calls with world leaders."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-executive-order-isis-defeat-30-days-a7551521.html

 

OOPs! Flynn's gone.  

 

 

September 2016:

 

 

 

January 2017:

Presidential Memorandum Plan to Defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/01/28/plan-defeat-islamic-state-iraq

 

Waiting...

 

 

Edited June 19, 20179 yr by iReason

Off-topic post removed.

The sooner this ends the better. How many people all toll have died or been grievously injured in the 14 years since G.W.Bush decided to avenge the attempt on his father's life? The whole area from Bangladesh to Morocco are pretty much governed as theocracies. Western interferance will never produce the desired results. The Sunni ISIS will soon be toast and Iraq will become a partner of fellow Shia state Iran. So predictable except by the then powers in place back then. I really doubt that these religious nuts would have accomplished any of this without former Bath Party military guys. Give then a little time and they will reinvent themselves to cause more trouble. Then what to do with the Kurds?  

I doubt that any of the tribes of the arab countries will ever quit trying to kill each other  off , because they think their roots are number 1 and the rest are 2 and 3 etc.    I guess the Kurds are thought of as number 4 or more, as they do not have a country of their own right now.

Geezer

1 hour ago, Stargrazer9889 said:

I doubt that any of the tribes of the arab countries will ever quit trying to kill each other off , because they think their roots are number 1 and the rest are 2 and 3 etc.

  I guess the Kurds are thought of as number 4 or more, as they do not have a country of their own right now.

Geezer

Finally I agree with you. One thing that we can be sure of is that the US will dump the Kurds after this conflict is over.  They will support Turkey and what is left of Syria after this US inspired Iraqi invasion. Just another war they lost.  Just another kick in the guts to Kurds and their rightful claim on their homeland.

 They will dump Kurds, just as US supports the regime of Turkey, and soon wanting to restore relations from Syria and away from the other scum... Russia.

The Turkish Kurds are quite separate from the Iraqi Kurds and there is not a lot of interplay between the Kurds of the two countries.   They will give aid and comfort to each other, but direct help is not common.  

 

When I worked in Iraq, I inquired about this rather strange relationship and I was told that each group had enough of their own problems (Iraq with Saddam), the PKK with the Turkish gov't.

 

For the Iraqi Kurds it was pretty imperative that they not get mixed up with the Turkish Kurds because Turkey routinely flew bombing raids over Northern Iraq and they would lose a great deal of support from the US gov't if they started helping the Turkish Kurds.  

 

The Iraqi Kurds generally would not report PKK members when they took cover in neighboring Iraq, however.

 

The Iraqi Kurds are quite well aware of the tenuous nature of the relationship with the US, however, they are much better off with having a relationship with the US military given that they are not viewed favorably by either the Arabs or the Persians.   With a minimum of support, the Kurds are quite good at protecting themselves.  

 

There are a lot of Kurds in the US and they do have some political strength and both Jalal Talabani and Barzani are well known to State Department officials and can be negotiated with.