Mosul: Iraqi special forces breach then flee Qadissiya district

Iraqi special forces backed by US air power claimed to have taken control of two districts of eastern Mosul today after heavy fighting in which they said they destroyed nine Daesh car bombs. However, subsequent reports indicated that they had to flee the Qadissiya district after heavy losses.

Infantry and armoured division troops also advanced in a nearby neighbourhood, claiming to have destroyed three rocket launchers and killing 30 militants, the Iraqi military said in a statement.

However, Daesh defenders managed to repeatedly strike Iraqi troops with suicide car bombers and infantry assaults. According to experts, the extremist organisation uses the car bombs like airstrikes before assaulting Iraqi positions with shock troops.

Daesh’s defence of Qadissiya has led to Iraqi forces being forced to withdraw from the Mosul neighbourhood earlier today.

Iraqi forces struggle in Mosul offensive

Iraqi troops have been making forays into eastern Mosul for about ten days in a desperate attempt to establish and expand a foothold in the city which Daesh has controlled since June 2014 when its leader, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, declared a caliphate in parts of Iraq and neighbouring Syria.

The campaign to drive Daesh out of the biggest city under its control in either country has brought together an alliance of 100,000 Iraqi fighters, also backed by thousands of Western personnel on the ground as well as Iranian military personnel.

They have faced fierce resistance from a few thousand militants who have deployed hundreds of snipers and waves of suicide car bombers, in addition to more conventional infantry assault fighters and rocket teams.

Daesh has demonstrated a high level of tactical and operational skill by using a network of tunnels, moats and traps around the city to lure Iraqi soldiers into districts and neighbourhoods before appearing behind troops as they advance, inflicting heavy casualties.

Daesh’s own kill count places Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga troops lost as of the third week at around 3,000 men, a number that has likely risen as the first month since operations began comes to an end tonight.

Further south, but still on the eastern fringes, troops from the First Infantry and Ninth Armoured divisions claimed to have attacked Daesh in the Salam neighbourhood.

Iraqi Security Forces and allied militias are also advancing on southern and northern fronts close to the city, aiming to open new fronts inside Mosul to put further pressure on the ultra-hardline organisation.

The attacking forces include Iraqi army troops, special forces and federal police units who are said to include Shia militias. Outside the city, Kurdish Peshmerga forces are holding territory to the northeast and mainly Shia Popular Mobilisation Forces, largely an Iranian proxy, are deployed to the west although they have been spotted operating in almost all other sectors.

They are supported by the airpower of a US-led international coalition, including jets and Apache helicopters, and Western military advisers who have accompanied Iraqi forces to the edge of Mosul.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) says so far almost 50,000 people have been displaced by the conflict, the most complex military operation in more than a decade of turmoil since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq toppled Saddam Hussein, and ushered in more than 13 years of chaos, sectarian civil war and instability.