Iraqi air forces resumed bombardment of the strongholds of ISIS extremist group on Sunday, in the western area of the Iraqi province of Anbar, as they managed to achieve notable advance during their fight against the extremists in the right bank of the city of Mousl. Meanwhile, spokesperson of Joint Forces said that ISIS currently controls just one percent of the city, saying that the whole city will be liberated within days.
Iraqi government forces took over a major area in western Mosul’s Old City on Monday, hours after the Islamic State militants launched a series of suicide attacks. The Defense Ministry’s War Media Cell said the army’s Counter-Terrorism Service forces took over a first section of al-Farouq, the closest area to the Grand Nuri Mosque from where IS declared its rule in Iraq in 2014.
The achievement comes a few hours after IS launched a series of suicide attacks on Iraqi forces in the Old City, IS’s last refuge in Mosul where militants are currently cornered withina few hundred meters according to Iraqi generals.
Army capitan Jabbar Hassan told Anadolu Agency that intense encounters broke out between security forces and militants in the Old City on the dawn of Monday, leaving a number of troopers wounded. The attacks come one day after IS members attempted to retake the liberated Tenek district. CTS forces had regained control and repelled the assault after IS fighters set fires to civilians’ homes.
Also on Monday, Anadolu Agency quoted Federal Police chief Shaker Jawdat saying his troops killed four IS members in Serjkhana neighborhood in the Old City after repelling an attack on the forces. He said forces cleared landmines from the city.
In the same context, A senior Syrian member of the Islamic State was shot dead Monday outside his residence west of Mosul, according to a local source. Abu Abdullah al-Halabi, the assistant head of the extremist group’s so-called “security committee”, was shot dead at the center of Tal Afar, a major Islamic State bastion west of Mosul, the source said. IS members were put on high alert after the shooting, according to the source.
Islamic State have been holding Tal Afar since 2014, with the area becoming one of its most significant entrenchments 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. Troops are currently besieging 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.
In Anbar, A local source in Anbar Province informed that a number of the Islamic State leaders were either killed or wounded, when a suicide bomber belonging to the group blew up himself amid their meeting in Qaim District, west of the province, Alsumaria News reported on Sunday.
The source said that a member of the Islamic State blew up himself amid a gathering of the group’s leaders in al-Qaim District, on the Iraqi-Syrian borders, while added that the suicide bomber detonated himself after the significant defeat of the group in Mosul and the approaching battles to libetare areas west of Anbar.
It is noteworthy, cities of Qaim, Anah and Rawa in al-Anbar Province are still under the control of the Islamic State that captured them three years ago, while security forces are preparing to launch an assault to liberate these cities.
On the political side, Iraq’s Vice President Iyad Allawi described the latest report issued by UNICEF about Iraqi children as horrific, saying that it provides clear warning that the country could face humanitarian and social crisis in the near future. He called the Iraqi institutions for dealing seriously with such crisis to overcome its repercussions as soon as possible.