Iraqi special forces yesterday entered the outskirts of Mosul and were advancing toward its more urban center, despite fierce resistance by Islamic State group fighters who hold the city, an Iraqi general said.
It was the first time Iraqi troops have set foot in the city, the nation’s second-largest, in more than two years.
The advance could be the start of a grueling and slow operation for the troops, who will be forced to engage in difficult, house-to-house fighting in urban areas that is expected to take weeks, if not months.
Photo: Reuters
Troops entered Gogjali, a neighborhood inside Mosul’s city limits, and by noon were only 800m from the more built-up Karama District, Major General Sami al-Aridi said.
“The special forces have stormed in,” he said. “DAESH [Islamic State] is fighting back and have set up concrete blast walls to block off the Karama neighborhood and our troops’ advance.”
Bombs have been laid along the road into the city, he added.
Mosul is the final Islamic State bastion in Iraq, the city from which it drove out a larger, but demoralized Iraqi army in 2014 and declared a “caliphate” that stretched into Syria.
Its loss would be a major defeat for the militants.
Yesterday’s battle opened up with Iraqi artillery, tank and machine gun fire on Islamic State positions on the edge of Gogjali neighborhood, with the extremists responding with guided anti-tank missiles and small arms in an attempt to block the advance.
Airstrikes by the US-led coalition supporting the operation added to the fire hitting the district.
From the nearest village east of Mosul, Bazwaya, smoke could be seen rising from buildings in Gogjali. Islamic State fighters also lit fires to produce dark smoke in order to obscure the aerial view of the city.
Inside the village, white flags still hung from some buildings, put up a day earlier by residents eager to show they would not resist the advance.
The families would be evacuated from the village to a camp for displaced persons, Brigadier General Haider Fadhil said.
As the fighting raged, several of the newly displaced from Bazwaya could be seen carrying white flags and driving a herd of about 150 sheep toward the camp.
Emad Hassan, 33, a former police officer, said he had traveled to Bazwaya when the operation started to flee the militants.
“When I knew the security forces were serious about liberating Mosul, I came here,” he said. “DAESH was preventing families from moving toward the security forces and ordered them into the city center, but I refused and stayed.”
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