A large number of ISIS elements escaped from the Iraqi city of Enna, in the western side of Iraq, to Syria after their increasing losses from which they suffered, as the Iraqi joint forces carried out a security operation against the strongholds of extremist groups in the Iraqi governorate of Diyala. Meanwhile, Popular Mobilization Forces managed to counter an attack from ISIS elements on the borders between Iraq and Syria.
Iraqi government forces managed on Thursday to take over a main entrance to western Mosul’s Old City, Islamic State militants’ last refuge in the city, the Joint Operations Command said. Lt. Gen. Abudl-Amir Yarallah, commander of the JOC’s Nineveh Operations, said in a statement forces had taken over the Bab Sinjar area, effectively severing all routes to the Old City and putting militants under a consummate siege.
Due to the impassable streets of the Old City, the 9th division’s armored vehicles will stop at besieging the area, leaving the invasion to infantry forces from the army, the Counter-Terrorism Service and the Rapid Response forces, Brig. Gen. Saleh Harz, commander of the 34th brigade of the army’s 9th division, told Almirbad website.
Iraqi commanders have recently said that a few hundred IS fighters remained in the Old City, the group’s last refuge in western Mosul from where the group first declared the establishment of its rule over a third of both Iraq and Syria in 2014. Iraqi government forces recaptured eastern Mosul in January and pushed towards the western side of the city in mid-February. Forces are also sweeping through neighboring al-Shifa district, an area with major health and medical facilities.
In the same context, The paramilitary troops have confronted an attack by Islamic State militants using booby-trapped vehicles near Iraqi-Syrian borders. Ahmed Radi Nasrullah, deputy commander of the 13th brigade of al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Units) said in statements that troops “foiled a sudden attack by the militants on Wednesday.”
“Infiltrating militants targeted our troops deployed on the Iraqi-Syrian borders,” Nasrullah said.
Air force as well as military troops, according to Nasrullah, were able to thwart the attack killing thirteen of the sneaking militants and destroying the vehicles. In May, Hadi al-Amiri, head of Badr Organization, said PMUs reached to Iraqi-Syrian borders.
Last month, PMUs announced liberation of Qairawan, a main Islamic State bastion which links between Tal Afar town and the Syrian borders, as well as Baaj after an offensive was launched on May 12. A second phase of operations was launched earlier this month to liberate the villages in the vicinity of the Qairawan.
While major offensives take place in Mosul by Iraqi troops, backed by U.S.-led coalition, other offensives are launched by the paramilitary troops of al-Hashd al-Shaabi to liberate neighboring regions in Nineveh province. PMUs, an alliance of more than 60 mostly Shia militias, are recognized by the government as a national force under the Prime Minister’s command.
An Iraqi army warplane wrongly killed a police member and wounded six others on Wednesday when it bombed a house in western Mosul, an Iraqi security source said. Ahmed al-Luheibi, an officer at Nineveh police service, told Anadolu Agency that the warplane bombarded a house in Mosul al-Jadida district which police forces used as a temporary unit. No comment has been made yet by the Iraqi Joint Operations Command around the incident.
Iraqi forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition, retook eastern Mosul from Islamic State militants in January, and pushed for the western side in mid February. Only a few hundred militants are thought to be under siege in the Old City from where the group first declared its control over a third of Iraq and a third of Syria in 2014.
Hundreds of civilians have been killed in botched strikes by security forces and the allied U.S.-led coalition, which recently admitted causing the death of more than 350 civilians since 2014. Others have been killed by IS snipers or caught and executed upon trying to flee areas held by the group in Mosul to others controlled by security troops.