Iraq, US bomb airport as Mosul advance continues

The Iraqi military, backed by the airpower of the US-led coalition, began to subject Mosul’s airport to heavy bombardment yesterday, as part of what Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi has described as “phase three” of the campaign to recapture Iraq’s second city from Daesh.

Iraqi commanders have said that a new phase in the operation had begun, targeting the airport which lies at the very southern boundaries of the city’s limits. According to military sources, the Iraqis aim to capture the airport in order to use it as a launch pad for further operations aiming to capture the western half of Mosul, bisected by the Tigris River from north to south.

Iraqi forces lost 13 men yesterday, though they managed to capture the village of Albusayf, also south of Mosul, that has commanding views of the airport. Iraq’s rapid response units and federal police, staffed by Iran-backed Shia jihadists from the Badr Organisation, attempted to comb the village but were struck by booby-traps and Daesh snipers.

Read: Suicide bombings kill five in east Mosul, security sources say

Al Jazeera cited Colonel Abbas Al-Jubouri as saying that “many” Daesh fighters – some of whom were wearing suicide vests – were killed, adding that a network of tunnels used by the militants in Albusayf was uncovered.

Iraqi forces intend to use Albusayf as an observation post, and to soften any Daesh resistance in Mosul’s airport through shelling before assaulting it. Operations today ceased as other units, particularly the Counter Terrorism Service (CTS), a US-trained and equipped force, position themselves to help in the assault.

Air cover

 Iraqi forces have been advancing against targets with a view to capturing western Mosul, thought to contain at least 750,000 civilians, under an airpower umbrella provided by the US-led coalition. Hundreds of US military advisers are also on the ground helping to direct Iraqi forces.

Read: 25 children starve to death in Iraq near Mosul

US commanders had previously said that no less than 50 warplanes were above Mosul’s skies at any given time, while Daesh’s Amaq news agency claimed that dozens of civilians had been killed by coalition airstrikes in western Mosul.

American intelligence estimates before the Mosul operation which began on 17 October last year and mustered 100,000 men, said that Daesh had approximately between 5,000-7,000 men. Estimates now suggest that 2,000 fighters are in and around western Mosul.