clear

Creating new perspectives since 2009

Iraq kills Daesh commander, captures Mosul bridge

March 15, 2017 at 11:41 am

Image of the Iraqi Army in Mosul as the operation to retake Mosul from Daesh terrorists continues on 12 March 2017 [Hemn Baban /Anadolu]

Iraqi government forces killed the Daesh commander of Mosul’s Old City yesterday as the battle for the militants’ last stronghold in Iraq continued, with Iraqi forces also successfully capturing a third bridge over the Tigris River.

As fighting intensified on Tuesday after the previous day’s heavy rains, civilians streamed out of western neighbourhoods recaptured by the government, cold and hungry.

Daesh snipers were slowing the advance of Interior Ministry’s federal police Rapid Response units, formed by recruiting Iran-backed Shia jihadists, on the Iron Bridge linking western and eastern Mosul but the elite forces managed to take the bridge earlier this morning.

Read: Mosul between war and sectarian violence

Government forces also pushed into areas of western Mosul, Daesh’s last redoubt in the city that has been the de facto capital of their self-declared caliphate.

Interior Ministry units also killed the military commander of the Old City, Abu Abdulrahman Al-Ansary, during operations to clear the Bab Al-Tob district, a federal police officer said. With many Daesh leaders having already retreated from Mosul, Al-Ansary’s death comes as blow to the militants as they defend their shrinking area of control street-by-street and house-by-house.

The capture of the Iron Bridge means that Iraqi forces hold three of the five bridges in Mosul that span the Tigris, all of which have been damaged by US-led airstrikes. The southernmost two have already been retaken.

Near the Mosul Museum, Iraq forces used armoured vehicles and tanks to attack snipers pinning down troops clearing areas around the bridge. An airstrike targeting one Daesh position hit a building, engulfing nearby troops in smoke and dust.

Since starting the offensive in October, Iraqi forces with US-led coalition and Iranian support via Shia jihadist organisations have retaken eastern Mosul and claim to have taken about 30 per cent of the west from the militants, who are outnumbered but fiercely defending their last stronghold in Iraq.

A Rapid Response spokesman said in the morning before the bridge was taken:

It’s very key for our forces to secure the riverside and prevent Daesh militants from reversing our advancing forces.

Heavy shelling

The boom of shelling and heavy machinegun fire could be heard from the centre of Mosul and helicopter gunships strafed the ground from above yesterday morning.

Amid the combat, a steady stream of refugees trudged out of the western districts, carrying suitcases, bottles of water and other possessions. Some pushed children and sick elderly relatives in handcarts and wheelbarrows.

Soldiers packed them into trucks on the Mosul-Baghdad highway to be taken to processing areas. Most left in the dark early morning hours or after the army recaptured their neighbourhoods. Food had been scarce, they said.

“We fled at 5 a.m. (0200 GMT) after the army had arrived. There has been a lot of shelling by Daesh,” said Hamid Hadi, a teacher. “Mostly we’ve been eating water mixed with tomatoes.”

Ashraf Ali, a nurse who escaped with his wife and two children, said mortar rounds were falling as they fled. They took advantage of the army retaking their district to get out.

“Daesh wanted us to move to their areas but we escaped when the army arrived,” he said.

Read: Iraqi forces fall into Daesh trap west of Mosul

As many as 600,000 civilians are caught with the militants inside Mosul, which Iraqi forces have effectively sealed off from the remaining territory that Daesh controls in Iraq and Syria. The Iraqi forces number about 100,000 men, including the army, special forces, Kurdish Peshmerga and Shia jihadists in both the federal police and the state-sanctioned Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), accused of committing war crimes since 2014.

More than 300,000 Mosul residents have been displaced since the start of the campaign in October. The Ministry of Immigration and Displacement said on Tuesday that in recent days, almost 13,000 displaced people from western Mosul had been received seeking assistance and temporary accommodation each day.

“Whenever we advance there are more people coming out,” said one Iraqi officer directing refugee transport. “There are more people on this side of the city and people are trying to leave because there is no food and no supplies in their area.”

Regarding the catastrophic displacement of refugees, Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar Al-Abadi brushed it off last night saying that the number of displaced and uprooted people were “not unexpected”.