(WN):U.S.-backed Iraqi forces fought Islamic
State fighters on Monday to clear the way to Mosul's airport, on the second day
of a ground offensive on the jihadists' remaining stronghold in the western
side of the city.
Federal police and elite interior ministry
units known as Rapid Response are leading the charge toward the airport,
located on the southern limit of the Mosul, trying to dislodge the militants
from the nearby hilltop village of Albu Saif. The Iraqi forces plan is to turn
the airport into a close support base for the onslaught into western Mosul
itself.
Islamic State militants are essentially under
siege in western Mosul, along with an estimated 750,000 civilians, after they
were forced out of the eastern part of the city in the first phase of an
offensive that concluded last month, after 100 days of fighting.
"They are striking and engaging our
forces and pulling back toward Mosul," Major Mortada Ali Abd of the Rapid
Response units told a Reuters correspondent south of Mosul. "God willing
Albu Saif will be fully liberated today." Elite Counter-Terrrorism Service
units headed to frontlines around the western side of Mosul, a city that is
divided into two halves by the Tigris River.
Helicopters were strafing the Albu Saif hill
to clear it of snipers, while machine gun fire and rocket propelled grenades
could be heard. The advancing forces also disabled a car bomb - used by the
militants to obstruct attacking forces. The Iraqi forces have been advancing so
far in sparsely populated areas and there were no families seen escaping. The
fighting will get tougher as they get nearer to the city itself and the risk
greater for civilians.
Up to 400,000 civilians could be displaced by
the offensive as residents of western Mosul suffer food and fuel shortages and
markets are closed, United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq Lise
Grande told Reuters on Saturday.
Commanders expect the battle to be more
difficult than in the east of the city, which Iraqi forces took control of last
month after three months of fighting. Tanks and armored vehicles cannot pass
through its narrow alleyways. The militants have developed a network of
passageways and tunnels to enable them to hide and fight among civilians,
disappear after hit-and-run operations and track government troop movements,
according to residents.
Western Mosul contains the old city center,
with its ancient souks, government administrative buildings, and the mosque
from which Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared his self-styled
caliphate over parts of Syria and Iraq in 2014. The city is the largest urban
center captured by Islamic State in both countries.
The U.S. commander in Iraq, Army Lieutenant
General Stephen Townsend, has said he believes U.S.-backed forces will
recapture both of Islamic State's major strongholds - Mosul and the city of
Raqqa in Syria - within the next six months. Islamic State was thought to have
up to 6,000 fighters in Mosul when the government's offensive started in mid-October.
Of those, more than 1,000 have been killed, according to Iraqi estimates.
The remainder now face a 100,000-strong force
made up of Iraqi armed forces, including elite paratroopers and police, Kurdish
forces and Iranian-trained Shi'ite paramilitary groups.
The westward road that links the city to
Syria was cut in November by the Shi'ite paramilitary known as Popular
Mobilization forces. The militants are in charge of the road that links Mosul
to Tal Afar, a town they control 60 km (40 miles) to the west.
***Civilian
Lives***
Coalition aircraft and artillery have
continued to bombard targets in the west during the break that followed the
taking of eastern Mosul. The United
States, which has deployed more than 5,000 troops in the fighting, leads an
international coalition providing key air and ground support, including
artillery fire, to the Iraqi and Kurdish forces.
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis arrived in
Baghdad on Monday on an unannounced visit to assess the war operations. "The
coalition forces are in support of this operation and we will continue .with
the accelerated effort to destroy ISIS," he said, using an acronym for the
militant group.
Mattis also said the U.S. military was not in
Iraq to seize the country's oil, distancing himself from remarks by President
Donald Trump. A U.S. serviceman died on Monday in a non-combat related incident
outside the Iraqi city of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, the U.S.-led coalition said,
giving no further details.
Islamic State imposed a radical version of
Islam in Mosul, banning cigarettes, televisions and radios, and forcing men to
grow beards and women to cover from head to toe. Citizens who failed to comply
risked death. Capturing Mosul would effectively end the Sunni group's ambitions
for territorial rule in Iraq. The militants are expected to continue to wage an
insurgency, however, carrying out suicide bombings and inspiring lone-wolf
actions abroad.
About 160,000 civilians have been displaced
since the start of the offensive in October, U.N. officials say. Medical and
humanitarian agencies estimate the total number of dead and wounded - both
civilian and military - at several thousand.
"This is the grim choice for children in
western Mosul right now: bombs, crossfire and hunger if they stay or execution
and snipers if they try to run," Save the Children said, adding that
children make up about half the population trapped in the city.
The involvement of many local and foreign
players with diverging interests in the war, heightens the risk that they could
clash between themselves after Islamic State is defeated. Influential Shi'ite
cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who is openly hostile to Washington's policies in the
Middle East, on Monday said U.S. troops should leave as soon as Mosul is
captured.
The Iraqi government has to demand that all
occupying and so-called friendly forces leave Iraq in order to preserve the
prestige and the sovereignty of the state," he said.
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