Iraqi troops yesterday attacked Islamic State (IS) positions south of Mosul as the US-led coalition intensifies its campaign against the militants on multiple fronts across their self-proclaimed caliphate.
Officers involved in the operation said Iraqi forces had advanced in tanks and armored vehicles towards the village of Haj Ali, about 60km south of Mosul, under cover of coalition airstrikes and artillery fire.
“In the beginning they resisted, but when they saw the force they withdrew,” said an Iraqi officer speaking from the newly recaptured village of Kharaib Jabr, adjacent to Haj Ali.
Photo: Reuters
Iraqi forces are also advancing on the edge of the Islamic State bastion of Falluja further south.
Iraqi troops were deployed to the northern Makhmour area earlier this year and launched an operation in March touting it as the beginning of a bigger campaign to retake Mosul — the largest city under militant control.
Since then, Iraqi forces have captured a handful of villages on the eastern bank of the river Tigris.
The operation’s commander blamed the slow pace on a lack of tanks and said he did not have enough men to hold ground after it was retaken from the militants.
Last week, an armored brigade was deployed to Makhmour, along with boats and bridges to enable troops to cross the Tigris to the Islamic State hub of Qayara on its western bank.
Qayara is home to an airfield that is to serve as a key staging ground for the future operation to recapture Mosul, and control of the oil town would also isolate territory the militants control further south and east.
Meanwhile, in Syria, thousands of civilians were on Saturday under siege in an IS stronghold surrounded by US-backed forces in the country’s north, as the militants claimed deadly attacks on a Damascus shrine.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance supported by US air strikes encircled the town of Manbij on Friday, cutting the group’s main supply line between Turkey and its de facto Syrian capital of Raqa.
Manbij lies at the heart of the last stretch of IS-controlled territory along Turkey’s border, and was a key point on the militants’ supply route.
“Tens of thousands of civilians still there can’t leave as all the routes out of town are cut,” the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor’s head Rami Abdel Rahman said.
He said at least 193 IS fighters and 22 SDF troops had been killed as well as 37 civilians, most of the last group in coalition air raids, since the alliance offensive against Manbij began on May 31.
“Bakeries in the town haven’t been open since Friday and food is beginning to become rare,” Abdel Rahman said.
Thousands of people last week fled Manbij, which had a pre-war population of about 120,000 — mostly Arabs, but about a quarter are Syrian Kurds.
Outside the town in areas reclaimed by the Kurdish-led alliance from IS, residents expressed relief.
“We’re so happy and we hope Manbij will soon be liberated as we have relatives there,” said Munzer Saleh in Jebb Hassan Agha village, 13km to the southeast.
Additional reporting by AFP
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