Iraq forces enter west Mosul neighbourhoods for first time in anti-ISIL push

Iraqis flee fighting between government forces and ISIL militants on the western side of Mosul on February 23, 2017. Khalid Mohammed / AP Photo

MOSUL // Iraqi forces on Friday entered neighbourhoods in west Mosul for the first time since beginning their push to recapture the city from ISIL four months ago.

It came as aid agencies warned the most dangerous phase of the offensive was about to begin for hundreds of thousands of civilians.

The interior ministry’s elite Rapid Response force, which retook Mosul airport on Thursday, kept its momentum and entered the adjacent Jawsaq neighbourhood.

They were met by mortar fire and snipers, but also by ululating women celebrating the end of more than two-and-half years of ISIL rule and by men begging for cigarettes.

“I don’t have any left, I swear, I don’t have any left,” said one government fighter as his convoy advanced slowly down the street.

The elite Counter-Terrorism Service, which has carried out most of the fighting in the Mosul offensive, took full control of the Ghozlani military base adjacent to the airport, said senior commander Major General Sami Al Aridi. The CTS also entered a neighbourhood farther west along the city’s southern limits.

“We entered the outer edge of Al Maamun neighbourhood,” said Staff Lieutenant General Abdul Wahab Al Saadi, a CTS commander.

“ISIL is using vehicle bombs – this morning three were destroyed. We have some injuries from the weaponized drones and mortars.”

It was not clear whether Iraqi forces would keep venturing deeper into west Mosul or consolidate their positions on the edges before launching operations to take them towards the centre.

The fight “has moved very fast so far but we’ll see what happens in the next stage. It might be more difficult,” Lt Gen Saadi said.

Elsewhere in Iraq on Friday, an ISIL suicide bomber driving an explosives-laden vehicle and gunmen attacked a military position near Jordan, killing at least 15 border guards, officials said.

ISIL has lost most of the town it previously held in Anbar province – its traditional western Iraqi bastion – but still has desert hideouts from which it continues to harass the security forces.

Friday’s raid was the deadliest to date against border guards.

In Mosul, the army plans to use the newly recaptured airport as a base for its push to drive ISIL from the city’s western districts.

The new stage of the offensive comes after government forces and their allies finished clearing ISIL from eastern Mosul last month, confining the insurgents to the western sector of the city, which is bisected by the Tigris river.

Commanders expect the battle in western Mosul to be more difficult, in part because tanks and armoured vehicles cannot pass through the narrow alleyways that criss-cross ancient districts there.

The narrow streets of the Old City, home to the mosque where Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi made his only public appearance as ISIL leader and proclaimed the “caliphate” in July 2014, could turn into a death trap.

They will be impassable for some military vehicles, forcing Iraqi forces to go on dismounted raids. ISIL has covered some streets with roofs to block aerial surveillance.

The New York-based International Rescue Committee said the most dangerous phase of the battle was about to begin for the 750,000 civilians believed to be trapped inside western Mosul.

“There is a real danger that the battle will be raging around them for weeks and possibly months to come,” said acting country director Jason Kajer.

The United Nations has warned that up to 400,000 civilians could be displaced by the new offensive amid food and fuel shortages.

Friday’s raids in the city’s west were restricted to thinly-populated areas. The government encouraged civilians to stay in their homes, but some were caught in the crossfire.

Jamal Abdelnasser, 14, was shot in the leg by ISIL when the militants stormed his home to take up sniper positions. After crossing the frontline, soldiers unwrapped the blood-soaked bandages around his leg and poured iodine on the bullet wound.

In another incident, a dozen civilians fleeing towards Iraqi security forces from the outskirts of Al Maamun.

The loss of west Mosul would be a blow to the militants’ claim they are running a “state”, leaving the city of Raqqa in neighbouring Syria as the only major urban centre they control.

* Agence France-Presse, Reuters