IRAQI special forces stood poised to enter Mosul in an offensive to drive out Islamic State militants after sweeping into the last village on the city’s eastern edge.
Associated Press reported armoured vehicles, including Abrams tanks, drew fire from mortars and small arms as they moved on the village of Bazwaya in an assault that began at dawn on Monday.
By evening, the fighting had stopped and units took up positions less than 1.5km from Mosul’s eastern border and about eight kilometres from the centre, two weeks into the offensive to retake Iraq’s second-largest city.
“We will enter the city of Mosul soon and liberate it from Daesh,” said Brig. Gen. Haider Fadhil of Iraq’s special forces, using an Arabic acronym for the extremists.
However Reuters reported Iraqi troops broke through IS defence lines in an eastern suburb of Mosul on Monday, taking the battle for the insurgent stronghold to inside the city limits for the first time.
According to Reuters, troops of the Iraqi army’s Counter-Terrorism Service moved forward on Gogjali, an industrial zone on the eastern outskirts of Mosul. They then reached Karama district, their first advance into the city itself, an officer said.
“They have entered Mosul,” he told Reuters. “They are fighting now in Hay (district) al-Karama.”
A Reuters correspondent in the village of Bazwaia saw plumes of smoke rising from a built-up area a few kilometres away, which a commander said was the result of the clashes in Karama.
Commanders had warned earlier that the battle for the city, the hardline militants’ de facto capital in Iraq, could take weeks and possibly months.
But General Talib Shegati said in an interview with state-run Iraqiya TV: “The soldiers of the Counterterrorism Force are advancing very fast. I wouldn’t say a matter of days but matter of hours before advancing and (to) start cleansing the city of Mosul from terrorism.”
Smoke rises from burning oil fields in Qayara, some 50 kilometres south of Mosul. Picture: AP Photo/Felipe DanaSource:AP
The fighting ahead is likely to be more difficult as civilians still live there, unlike most villages taken so far by the Iraqi forces which were emptied of their Christian population.
Islamic State singled out religious minorities in northern Iraq, including Christians and Yazidis, for killing and eviction after leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a caliphate in 2014 over territory they captured there and in neighbouring Syria. Their seizure of Mosul and surrounding towns effectively drove Christians from the area for the first time in two millennia.
An Iraqi troop near the village of Bazwaya, on the eastern edges of Mosul. Picture: AFP/Bulent KilicSource:AFP
An Iraqi Counter Terrorism Section member advances on the eastern edge of Mosul. Picture: AFP/Bulent KilicSource:AFP
The recapture of Mosul would mark the militants’ effective defeat in the Iraqi half of the territory they had seized.
It is still home to 1.5 million residents, making it four of five times bigger than any other city they controlled in both Iraq and Syria.
“The battle of Mosul will not be a picnic,” Hadi al-Amiri, leader of the Badr Organisation, the largest Shi’ite militia fighting with Iraqi government forces, said from the southern frontline. “We are prepared for the battle of Mosul even if it lasts for months.”
Shiite fighters from the Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation) push towards the village of Umm Sijan, south of Mosul. Picture: AFP/Ahmad Al-RubayeSource:AFP
Pro-Iranian Iraqi Shi’ite militias joined the fighting over the weekend, aiming to cut the route between Mosul and Raqqa, Islamic State’s main stronghold in Syria.
They have also set oil wells on fire to cover their movements and displaced thousands of civilians from villages toward Mosul, using them as “human shields”, UN officials and villagers have said.
Shiite fighters from the Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation) prepare missiles to hit Islamic State positions. Picture: AFP/Ahmad Al-RubayeSource:AFP
Since the offensive began on October 17, Iraqi forces moving toward the city have made uneven progress. Advances have been slower in the south, with government forces there still 35 kilometres from the city.
The US military estimates IS has 3000 to 5000 fighters inside Mosul and another 1500 to 2500 in the city’s outer defensive belt. The total number includes around 1000 foreign fighters.