Iraqi joint forces managed to destroy a large number of targets related to ISIS extremist group in the framework of the military operation that has been launched two days ago in the Iraqi province of Diyala. Meanwhile, the Iraqi troops resumed their advance in the Iraqi city of Mousl in the framework of the military operation to liberate the country’s second largest city from the grip of extremists.
Iraqi government forces took over a major district held by Islamic State militants and killed two senior leaders on Friday as they advanced to liberate the western side of Mosul. The army’s elite Counter-Terrorism Service recaptured Islah al-Zeraee district, an Islamic State bastion in the western side of the city, said commander of the Nineveh Operations, Abdul-Amir Yarallah, in a statement.
Meanwhile, Federal Police chief Shaker Jawdat said in a separate statement that his forces retook al-Nour civil hospital as well as a school used by IS militants as a booby-trapping factory south of the strategic, IS-held Old City. He said troops killed Abu Ali al-Basrawi, the group’s so-designated “legal official” for Mosul, Abu Youssef al-Masri, the so-called “sustenance official” and the latter’s aide, Radwan al-Maslawi.
According to Jawdat, three other suicide bombers were als killed near Bilal al-Habashi mosque in the Old City. In the northwestern axis of operations, which government forces began to move through last week, the forces continued to engage in fierce encounters at al-Ektisadiyeen district, another major neighborhood adjacent to the Old City. Iraqi forces recaptured eastern Mosul in January and generals said recently they became in control over nearly 90 percent of the western region.
In the same context, Iraqi army fighter jets and paramilitary troops killed 36 Islamic State militants in a new offensive targeting the group’s havens near Nineveh’s borders with Syria. Al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Units) said through its media that army jets killed 27 militants and destroyed three vehicles belonging to them at al-Qayrawan region. It added that ground forces also killed six militants at the village of Um al-Shababit, one of four villages recaptured by the troops earlier on Friday.
PMU said through its media earlier on Friday it launched an offensive on al-Baaj and Qayrawan regions, backed by the army air force. The regions fall west to Mosul, Islamic State’s largest urban stronghold in Iraq which Iraqi commanders have said they predict to recapture this month.
The targeted regions also fall west of Tal Afar, another IS bastion. Occasional clashing statements from the Iraqi government and al-Hashd leaderships emerged regarding al-Hashd’s possible involvement in anticipated operations for Tal Afar. While PMUs said they were ready for the battle, Iraqi officials reassured that the Shia-led troops were not going to take part in offensives targeting the mainly Sunni and Turkmen town.
As the offensive began on Fiday, PMU media said its troops engaged in fierce encounters with IS militants as they invaded Um al-Shababit village, north of Qayrawan, and were close to proceeding towards al-Hayyat, a neighboring village.
On the humanitarian side, Officials in Anbar province said Friday they discovered three mass graves containing what is believed to be the relics of civilians and security personnel executed by Islamic State militants.
The three mass graves were discovered at al-Karma, east of Fallujah, Azrakiya, northwest of Fallujah and at the center of the city of Ramadi, according to Ammar Nuri, the director of al-Shuadaa (martyrs), an Iraqi cabinet body established in 2007 to assist the families of civilians and security personnel killed or imprisoned by the Saddam Hussein regime as well as in terrorism and violence that followed its collapse.
The bodies contained in the graves probably belonged to people executed by IS in 2015, according to Nuri. Army squads are guarding the discovered sites until special forensic teams arrive from Baghdad to open them up.
Since it emerged in 2014 to proclaim a self-styled Islamic Caliphate, the Islamic State executed hundreds of civilians and security agents for multiple reasons, including failure to commit to its extremist religious rules, attempting to flee areas under its control or collaboration with security forces.
Dozens of mass graves have been discovered as Iraqi forces launched offensives in October to retake regions occupied by the group.
Islamic State militants in Anbar only control three towns in the western area close to the borders with Syria, and the Iraqi government says it will launch operations soon to retake those towns.