Iraqi forces probe Daesh’s defences east of Mosul

The Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) attempting an advance on the eastern bank of the Tigris River targeted two villages today on the edge of the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud as a part of the ongoing operations to retake Mosul from Daesh, a military statement said.

According to the statement, which is so far unconfirmed, troops from the Ninth Armoured Division took the village of Abbas Rajab, four kilometres east of Nimrud, and raised the Iraqi flag.

The Iraqi government says Nimrud was bulldozed last year as part of Daesh’s campaign to destroy symbols which Daesh consider idolatrous. It would be the first such site to be recaptured from Daesh.

Counterterrorism forces and an armoured division fighting to the east of the city have been battling to create a foothold in half a dozen districts they surged into a week ago before being hurled out by a ferocious Daesh defence.

They have been hit by waves of attacks by Daesh units, including snipers, suicide bombers as well as infantry assault and mortar teams, who have used a network of tunnels under the city and civilian houses in the narrow streets to wear them down in lethal urban warfare.

Reuters cited residents contacted by telephone today who said aircraft from the US-led coalition supporting the Iraqi forces were circling the skies above eastern Mosul. They heard the sound of heavy clashes, artillery and mortar fire.

The militants were hitting back, they said. “Daesh fighters were firing mortar bombs from a garden next to us which they had taken from a Christian,” one person said.

“They were bombarding the Zahra neighbourhood where the Iraqi forces are. The war planes hit back with small rockets and destroyed the mortar and killed three of them,” he said, adding he had moved his family to another district.

Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) forces have been fighting in Zahra for a week, sometimes gaining ground only to be pushed back on the defensive. A senior CTS officer said today that the neighbourhood was fully under control.

However, ISF formations have frequently claimed victory in districts and neighbourhoods only for later reports to confirm that they had been pushed back. Earlier this week, Iraqi forces had withdrawn from eastern districts to the satellite town of Gogjali, just outside Mosul.

The militants, who have ruled Mosul with ruthless violence, displayed bodies of at least 20 people across the city in the last two days – five of them crucified at a road junction – saying they had been killed for trying to make contact with the attacking forces, residents have said.

The United Nations has warned of a possible exodus of hundreds of thousands of refugees from the city. So far 45,000 have been displaced, the International Organization for Migration said on today.

Those figures exclude the thousands of people forced to accompany Daesh fighters as they retreated further into Mosul from towns and villages around the city.