Iraqi forces that are battling ISIS in northern Iraq have managed to make huge progress after launching an offensive in October last year.
Elite Counter-Terrorism Forces (CTS) took control of the eastern end of the southernmost bridge in Mosul earlier today after a 12 week operation.
Despite successfully reconquering some parts, others have proved more difficult when die-hard jihadist fighters fought back with sniper fire, booby-traps and a seemingly endless supply of suicide car bombs.
Speaking to news organisation AFP, Sabah al-Noman, a spokesman, said: ‘[The CTS forces] reached the Tigris River from the eastern (side) of the fourth bridge.
‘This operation was precisely planned; in fact we have been working on it for almost a week,’ he said, adding that it ‘surprised the enemy.’
The news was also confirmed by Iraqi army Staff Lieutenant General Abdulamir Yarallah.
Tens of thousands of Iraqi forces launched the offensive to try and reclaim its second largest city after ISIS seized around a third of the country in 2014.
The continued presence in the city of hundreds of thousands of civilians – either forced to stay by IS or reluctant to leave their homes for crowded and cold displacement camps – has impeded the federal advance.
However Iraqi forces, who are backed by increased support from the US-led coalition that has carried out the bulk of air strikes against IS and deployed military advisers on the ground, made rapid progress in the first week of 2017.
Their push to the banks of the Tigris River marks a symbolic and tactical victory for the Iraqi forces – but they have much work left to do to take full control of Mosul’s eastern side.
Having eyes on the river should further complicate IS’s already reduced ability to resupply the eastern front with fighters and weapons from the west bank, which it still firmly controls.
According to the United Nations, more than 135,000 people have been displaced since the start of the operation to retake Mosul, a significant proportion of them from outlying areas.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi had promised that his forces would rid Iraq of ISIS by the end of 2016 but later said that eliminating the jihadists would take several more months.
The western bank of the city is slightly smaller than the east but more densely-populated and includes neighbourhoods that are seen as bastions of support for the Islamic State group.
The jihadists, vastly outnumbered and outgunned in Mosul by federal forces and their allies, have launched a number of diversionary attacks over the past three months.
They also appear to have ramped up suicide bomb attacks in Iraq’s capital city, Baghdad, where at least 18 people were killed in two separate blasts near markets on Sunday.
The first attack struck the main wholesale vegetable market, which lies in the frequently-targeted, overwhelmingly Shiite neighbourhood of Sadr City.
‘A soldier at the gate of Jamila market opened fire on a suicide car bomb after noticing a suspect vehicle but the terrorist blew up his car,’ interior ministry spokesman Saad Maan said.
At least 12 people died in the explosion while another six Iraqis were killed in a second attack at a market in the Baladiyat area, security and hospital officials said.
The explosions were the latest in a string of attacks that have left close to 100 people dead since New Year’s Eve.
Daily Mail
UM– USEKE.RW
