Airstrikes disable 5th bridge in Daesh-held Mosul

US-led coalition warplanes on Tuesday struck a bridge in Daesh-held Mosul in an effort to cut the terrorist group’s supply lines in and out of the city, according to Iraqi military sources.

It is the fifth bridge in Mosul to be hit by coalition jet-fighters within the context of a weeks-long offensive to recapture the city, which Daesh overran in mid-2014.

“Coalition warplanes struck the bridge twice with a view to cutting Daesh’s supply lines,” Iraqi army officer Ismail Zahid told Anadolu Agency.

The bombardments, he said, had seriously damaged the bridge, which links the city’s western and eastern halves.

“Our objective is to render the bridge inoperable without destroying it entirely,” Zahid said.

In a related development Tuesday, Iraqi military aircraft dropped thousands of leaflets over Mosul urging residents to “rise up” against Daesh and support Iraqi army and security forces, the army said in a statement.

“Iraqi air-force planes have dropped thousands of leaflets over Mosul’s Al-Hawija and Al-Qaim districts,” the statement read.

In a separate statement, Iraqi Army Brigadier-General Mohamed Abdel-Ghani al-Waeli said the leaflets “recounted the army’s recent victories, urged residents to help Iraqi troops against Daesh and warned the terrorist group that its end was nigh”.

Army gains ground

Also on Tuesday, Iraq’s army-linked counter-terrorism agency captured Mosul’s northeastern Al-Barid district, according to military sources.

“Our forces managed to completely liberate Al-Barid, reaching the outskirts of the nearby Al-Muthanna neighborhood,” Army Major-General Haidar al-Ebeidi, an army officer, told Anadolu Agency.

Safwan Nayif, another army major-general, told Anadolu Agency that counter-terrorism forces – in tandem with fierce coalition airstrikes – had effectively destroyed all Daesh hideouts in the area.

“We hoisted the Iraqi flag over several homes in the neighborhood to show that the district was now under the control of the armed forces,” Nayif said.

Counter-terrorism forces, he added, had killed seven Daesh militants in the fighting and blown up two explosives-laden vehicles.

“Our forces are now consolidating their positions in the area amid fears of a counter-attack by Daesh sleeper cells,” the officer said.

Once Iraq’s second largest city in terms of population, Iraqi officials have repeatedly vowed to recapture Mosul by year’s end.