Sun, Nov 13, 2016 page1

• Iraq troops battle IS in Mosul, UN says dozens executed

  • AFP, MOSUL, Iraq
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  Elite Iraqi troops on Friday battled the Islamic State (IS) group in the streets of Mosul, Iraq, as the UN reported militants had executed dozens of people inside the city for alleged “treason.”

  With the militants also on the defensive in neighboring Syria, US-backed forces pressed an advance on the Islamic State group’s bastion al-Raqqah, Syria, after a sandstorm eased.

  High winds in the desert separating the Syrian Kurdish-Arab militia alliance from the militants’ Euphrates Valley stronghold had slowed their advance on Thursday as visibility plummeted.

  

  A woman who is fleeing the fighting between the Islamic State and the Iraqi army in Mosul carries a child yesterday as she walks at the Iraqi Special Forces checkpoint in Kokjali, east of Mosul, Iraq.

  Photo: Reuters

  Iraqi forces had also regrouped after meeting stronger than expected resistance from militants on the east bank of the Tigris River running through Mosul after thrusting into the built-up area last week.

  Commanders of Iraq’s elite counterterrorism service said troops were advancing on two eastern neighborhoods of the city.

  In a house near the front line, Staff Lieutenant Colonel Muntadhar Salem clutched a radio in one hand and a tablet computer in the other with a map showing recaptured buildings.

  As the troops waited for orders to push forward, incoming mortar rounds shook curtains on the windows.

  Later on Friday, the fighting eased off, although counterterrorism forces still occasionally fired mortar rounds toward IS positions in eastern Mosul’s Arbajiyah area.

  IS fighters reportedly shot dead more than 60 people this week and hung some of the bodies from poles inside Mosul after claiming they had collaborated with Iraqi troops, the UN human rights office said on Friday.

  “On Tuesday, ISIL reportedly shot and killed 40 civilians in Mosul city after accusing them of ‘treason and collaboration,’” it said, referring to the IS by one of its acronyms.

  On Wednesday, IS slaughtered another 20 people at the Ghabat Military Base in northern Mosul after accusing them of “leaking information,” it added.

  The battle for Mosul is now in its fourth week, and while troops have entered the built-up area, there are weeks, if not months, of fighting ahead.

  “Our forces have begun the attack on Arbajiyah. The clashes are ongoing,” Salem said.

  Counterterrorism officer Staff Lieutenant Colonel Ali Hussein Fadhel said the first row of buildings in Arbajiyah had been seized.

  “We are within firing range of Karkukli but the full attack has not yet started,” he said of another eastern district.

  Iraq began the operation to retake Mosul on Oct. 17, with federal and Kurdish regional forces closing in on the city from three sides.

  Pro-government Shiite paramilitaries later began advancing on the town of Tal Afar, which commands the city’s western approaches, with the goal of cutting the militants off from territory they control in Syria.

  The advance up the Tigris Valley from the south has been slowest. Troops on that front had the farthest to cover and a string of militant-held towns in their path.

  Russia, which has sided with the Damascus regime, on Friday said it had evidence rebels in the Syrian city of Aleppo used chemical weapons, a charge the opposition denied.
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