Mosul: Iraqi forces push closer towards war-torn city

Updated October 30, 2016 09:10:43

Photo: The Iraqi Shiite Hezbollah Brigade militia are among 25,000 troops involved in the operation to recapture Mosul from Islamic State. (AP)

Iraqi forces pushed into a town south of Mosul after Islamic State fighters fled with civilians used as human shields, as state-sanctioned Shiite militias joined the offensive by opening up a new front to the west.

Iraqi troops approaching Mosul from the south advanced into Shura after a wave of US-led airstrikes and artillery shelling against militant positions inside the town.

Commanders said most of the IS fighters withdrew earlier this week with civilians, but that US air strikes had disrupted the forced march, allowing some civilians to escape.

Iraqi army Major General Najim al-Jabouri said after the shelling: "I don't think we will face much resistance".

"This is easy, because there are no civilians left," he added.

"The big challenge for us is always the civilians."

Lieutenant Colonel Hussein Nazim of the militarised federal police, which is leading the advance from the south, said some civilians — mainly the elderly and infirm — might still be in the city but that the use of heavy artillery and air strikes was a standard tactic.

"We must strike like this before we move in or else we will be easy prey for Daesh," he said.

The UN human rights office said that IS had rounded up tens of thousands of civilians in and around Mosul to use as human shields, and had massacred more than 200 Iraqis in recent days, mainly former members of the security forces.

The United Nations has warned of a possible humanitarian crisis and a potential refugee exodus from Mosul.

Villagers from outlying areas around Mosul told the Reuters news agency that women and children were being forced to walk as human shields alongside retreating Islamic State fighters as they withdrew into the city this week.

Militias launch assault to seal off western approaches

State-sanctioned Shiite militias meanwhile launched an assault to the west of Mosul aimed at driving IS from the town of Tal Afar, which had a majority Shiite population before it fell to the militants in the summer of 2014.

They will also try to secure the western border with Syria, where IS shuttles fighters, weapons and supplies between Mosul and the Syrian city of Raqqa, the de facto capital of its self-styled caliphate.

Ahmed al-Assadi, a spokesman for the militias, told reporters in Baghdad that they had retaken 10 villages since the start of the pre-dawn operation.

However, there was likely still some fighting underway, and he said forces were removing explosive booby-traps left by IS to slow their advance.

Iraqi and Western military sources told Reuters there had been debate about whether or not to seal off Mosul's western flank.

Leaving it open would have offered Islamic State a chance to retreat, potentially sparing residents from a devastating, inner-city fight to the finish.

Some civilians fleeing Mosul have used the roads to the west to escape to Qamishli, in Kurdish-controlled northern Syria. Others, from villages just outside Mosul, have exploited the chaos to flee in the other direction.

"Some people fled the other day so we took a chance. Daesh fired two bullets at us but they missed and we made it," said Ahmed Raad, 20, from the village of Abu Jarbuaa northeast of Mosul, who had found refuge at a peshmerga base.

Fears offensive could stoke sectarian tensions

The involvement of the Iranian-backed Shiite militias has raised concerns that the battle for Mosul, a Sunni-majority city, could aggravate sectarian tensions.

Rights groups have accused the militias of abuses against civilians in other Sunni areas retaken from IS — accusations the militia leaders deny.

In Baghdad, meanwhile, a suicide bomber targeting an aid station for Shiite pilgrims killed at least seven people and wounded more than 20, police and hospital officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to brief reporters.

IS claimed the attack in a statement carried by its Aamaq news agency.

Iraq launched a massive operation to retake militant-held Mosul, its second largest city, last week.

The offensive to retake the city, which is still home to more than 1 million people, is expected to take weeks, if not months.

The Mosul offensive involves more than 25,000 soldiers, federal police, Kurdish fighters, Sunni tribesmen and the Shiite militias, which operate under an umbrella organisation known as the Popular Mobilisation Units.

AP/Reuters

Topics: unrest-conflict-and-war, terrorism, defence-forces, defence-and-national-security, iraq, united-states

First posted October 29, 2016 18:49:02