Leadership of Iraqi joint forces announced the percentage of land they managed to liberate from the grip of ISIS extremist group. Meanwhile, Anbar’s leading member Naeem Abdel Mohsen said that the security forces prevented an attack from the extremists who attempted to attack a wedding party in the western area of the same governorate.
Iraqi forces have taken over 70 percent of western Mosul’s Old City district, Islamic State militants’ last refuge in Iraq’s second largest city, police forces said. Federal Police chief, Lt. Gen. Shaker Jawdat, said his forces moved Wednesday through al-Farouq street towards Bab al-Toub, Serjkhana, Bab Jadid and Bab Lakash, all areas in the middle of the medieval district. He said troops were engaging in fierce battles with an estimated 300 IS fighters, backed by warplanes and drones.
During the advances, Jawdat said, police troops killed 63 militants. Those, he said, included Ahmed al-Jubouri, the commander of IS’s so-called “military police service”, Abu Fatema al-Ansari, a Moroccan who served as the top military commander for western Mosul, Abu Anas al-Suri, a Syrian in charge of detachments, and Abu Ruqaya, a top ammunition keeper.
The forces, according to Jawdat, destroyed 14 booby-trapped cars and detonated 52 explosive devices. They also seized stacks of chemical substances and other munitions. Operations to recapture western Mosul launched in mid February. Government forces took over the eastern side of the city in January. The Old City hosts the Grand Nuri Mosque from where Islamic State’s supreme leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ascended a pulpit to proclaim the establishment of the group’s rule in Iraq and Syria.
In the same context, Iraqi government forces recaptured two areas at the heart of western Mosul’s Old City on Wednesday as operations push deeper against a few hundred Islamic State militants at their last bastion in the city.
The Defense Ministry’s War Media Cell said army forces took over Hadrat al-Sada and Ahmadiya, northwest of the Grand Nuri Mosque where Islamic State’s supreme leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed an Islamic “caliphate” in 2014
Earlier on Wednesday, Federal Police chief, Lt. Gen. Shaker Jawdat, said his forces moved Wednesday through al-Farouq street towards Bab al-Toub, Serjkhana, Bab Jadid and Bab Lakash, all areas in the middle of the medieval district. He revealed that government troops had become in control over 70 percent of the medieval district.
He said troops were engaging in fierce battles with an estimated 300 IS fighters, backed by warplanes and drones. Operations to recapture western Mosul launched in mid February. Government forces took over the eastern side of the city in January.
Iraqi authorities and United Nations agencies believe that at least 100.000 civilians are locked up inside the Old City in IS captivity, and are regularly shot dead or caught before execution once attempting to flee the battlefield.
A family of seven members died when their house collapsed due to underground excavations by the Islamic State west of Mosul, a source was quoted saying on Wednesday.
A local source was quoted saying in a press statement that the family, which included children, died under rubble when their house collapsed due to underground tunnels dug by the militants in the Islamic State’s stronghold town of Tal Afar, west of Mosul.
The source said militants usually prevent residents of houses above their working sites from leaving, adding that the tunnels serve as a defense technique against imminent assaults by security forces . A week ago, Islamic State militants reportedly confiscated tens of civilian-owned vehicles to build fortifications in the town. A source told Alsumaria News that the cars blocked the streets of the town, forming walls against possible offensives.
Islamic State have been holding Tal Afar since 2014, with the area becoming one of its most significant bastions in Nineveh province. So far, offensives by the pro-government Popular Mobilization have isolated the town from the Syrian borders and from Mosul, and recaptured a main military base there.
Government troops are currently fighting IS militants in central Mosul’s Old City, where they group declared its rule in Iraq in 2014. The issue of Tal Afar’s invasion has been controversial since Iraqi government forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition, launched an offensive in October to retake areas occupied by the Islamic State in Nineveh, most notably the city of Mosul.
The Shia-led Popular Mobilization has occasionally said its fighters were awaiting orders from Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to invade the mostly-Sunni Turkmen town. But regional Sunni powers, especially Turkey, had opposed the notion fearing sectarian consequences, obliging Abadi’s government to reassure that only the official forces would take up the mission.