MOSUL // Iraqi forces reached the western Mosul’s southernmost bridge Monday, a key step in the offensive to drive ISIL from the city.
The advance, a little more than a week into a major push to retake Mosul’s west bank, could allow the army to extend a floating bridge between the city’s two halves and pile pressure on the extremists.
“The Rapid Response force and the federal police have liberated Jawsaq neighbourhood and now control the western end of the Fourth Bridge,” said Brig Gen Yahya Rasool, spokesman for the Joint Operations Command overseeing the fight against ISIL.
“That means the bridge is under control on both sides,” Brig Gen Rasool said.
The Fourth Bridge is the southernmost of five bridges linking western Mosul to the eastern half of the city across the Tigris river. All of the bridges were rendered unusable by US-led air strikes last year as part of a strategy to isolate the militants in the two halves of the city.
Government forces retook eastern Mosul from ISIL last month, completing a key phase in an offensive on the city that began on October 17 and has involved tens of thousands of fighters.
Engineering units are now expected to deploy a so-called “ribbon bridge” across the Tigris that will allow the connection of the western side’s active front lines to the east bank.
Brig Gen Rasool said the interior ministry’s Rapid Response force had retaken two neighbourhoods on the west bank, while forces from the elite Counter-Terrorism Service have retaken another further west.
“The street fighting is intense, these are populated neighbourhoods,” he said. “But our forces are fighting deep in the west, the enemy is broken.”
Iraq forces were also retaking desert territory south-west of the city to further cut off Mosul from ISIL-held territory in Syria.
“In general, all the troops are moving forward as planned and doing so rapidly,” said Staff Lt Gen Abdelamir Yarallah. He was speaking from Talul Al Atshana, the highest point in Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital.
Mosul was ISIL’s last urban bastion in Iraq, and its recapture would crown more than two years of a bloody counter-offensive to retake the third of the country lost to ISIL in 2014.
ISIL fighters have taken up positions deep inside the western half of the city, and while Iraqi forces are still advancing steadily, the battle is expected to get tougher the closer they get to the centre. Some streets are too narrow for military vehicles and will oblige troops to advance on foot.
Iraqi helicopters and warplanes from the US-led coalition against ISIL have played a key role in recent gains, but the density of the civilian population in west Mosul limits air support. There were an estimated 750,000 civilians and about 2,000 militants in the area before the offensive on west Mosul began.
The United Nations food agency said accounts from people who had managed to flee were very alarming.
“We are hearing from some families that food has drastically risen in price and is unaffordable. In extreme cases, people cannot access food at all,” said Sally Haydock, chief of the World Food Programme in Iraq.
The UN has said it was planning for a possible exodus of 250,000 people or more from west Mosul, yet only a few hundred families have fled their homes as Iraqi forces retook their neighbourhoods over the past week.
Some are unable to leave because ISIL uses them as human shields, while others decide against exposing themselves to crossfire or leaving their property unprotected.
Some residents may also be ISIL supporters willing to help the extremists in their last stand, or afraid to face arrest if they leave.
* Agence France-Presse
