Ahmad Al-Rubaye, AFP | Iraqi troops are pressing on Mosul from the south.

Iraqi forces battled Sunday through booby-traps, sniper fire and suicide car bombs to tighten the noose around Mosul, while also hunting Islamic State group jihadists behind attacks elsewhere in the country.

Advertising Read more

Iraqi special forces on Monday began shelling Islamic State (IS) group positions northwest of Bartella, a historically Christian town 15 kilometres east of the city.

Reporting from Erbil, a city further east of Bartella early Monday, FRANCE 24’s James Andre said anti-IS group forces -- including Kurdish peshmerga troops -- were closing in on Iraq’s second-largest city from the east in an arc.

“Yesterday, peshmerga forces said they had seized the city of Bashiqa, a strategic city on one of the main roads leading into Mosul, only nine kilometres outside the city to the northeast,” said Andre.

“That completes an arc on this eastern side of the city, which is composed of the cities of Qaraqosh, Bartella and Bashiqa. From this arc of cities, the forces are hoping they can give the final push into the actual outskirts of Mosul.”

Anti-IS group forces were also fighting around Qaraqosh, another town that had a large Christian population before the jihadist group took over the region in 2014.

“We spoke to a general yesterday in Qaraqosh, who said he was waiting for reinforcements and that he was strengthening his positions in Qaraqosh before an assault today on Route 80. That is one of the main highways entering the city of Mosul to the southeast,” said Andre.

Launched last Monday, the US-coordinated assault by a diverse coalition of troops and militia groups aims to reclaim the last major Iraqi city under IS group control, dealing another setback to the jihadists' self-declared "caliphate" in Iraq and neighbouring Syria.

On Sunday, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said the idea of simultaneous operations against Mosul and Raqqa – the IS group’s de facto capital in Syria -- "has been part of our planning for quite a while".

He also said destroying IS's external operations capabilities was "our highest priority".

Kirkuk attack sows chaos

The jihadists on Friday staged a surprise assault on Iraq's Kurdish-controlled city of Kirkuk, and two days later security forces were still tracking down IS fighters there.

The dozens of attackers, including several suicide bombers, failed to seize key government buildings but sowed chaos in the large oil-rich and ethnically mixed city.

At least 51 of the jihadists have been killed, including three more on Sunday, local security officials said.

At least 46 people, most of them in the security forces, were also killed in the raid and ensuing clashes, which had almost completely ceased by late Sunday.

Life was returning to normal in some parts of Kirkuk, but security forces in southern neighbourhoods were still hunting for several gunmen.

The IS group also attacked Rutba, a remote town near the Jordanian border in the western province of Anbar, with five suicide car bombs, the area's top army commander said on Sunday.

The attackers briefly seized the mayor's office but security forces quickly regained the upper hand, he said.

Fierce IS group resistance

The spectacular attack in Kirkuk, of a type observers warned could happen more often as IS loses territory and reverts to a traditional insurgency, temporarily drew attention away from Mosul.

But there was no sign it had any significant impact on the offensive to retake the city.



Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, commander of the US-led coalition, said Saturday that jihadist resistance was stiff.

"It's pretty significant, we are talking about enemy indirect fire, multiple IEDs (improvised explosive devices), multiple VBIED (vehicle-borne IEDs) each day, even some anti-tank guided missiles," he said in Baghdad.

Iraqi Kurdish and federal forces rarely release casualty figures, but hospitals behind Kurdish lines were overwhelmed by the number of wounded, an AFP reporter said.

Heavy casualties

"We have a shortage of human resources, medical equipment, medicine and specialised doctors," Lawand Meran, a doctor at Arbil West hospital, said.

"Soon, if we have 1,000 casualties, our capacity will not be enough."

US military officials have revised their estimate slightly upward for the number of IS fighters in and around Mosul.

They believe the IS group is defending Mosul, where the "caliphate" was proclaimed in June 2014, with 3,000 to 5,000 fighters inside the city and 1,000 to 2,000 on the outskirts.

There is deep concern for an estimated 1.2 million civilians still believed to be in the city.

Several thousand civilians fleeing the fighting and the jihadists who ruled them for two years have escaped to camps for the displaced south of Mosul.

"Over 5,000 people are currently displaced and in need of humanitarian assistance," the United Nations said in an update on Sunday.

"Population movements are fluctuating as the front lines move, including people returning to their homes following improved security conditions in the immediate area," it said in a statement.

Iraqi forces are now fighting in sparsely populated areas but when they near the limits of the city itself aid groups fear the start of a huge exodus.

A million people could be displaced, sparking an unprecedented humanitarian emergency in a country where more than three million people have already been forced from their homes since the start of 2014.

(FRANCE 24 with AP, AFP)



Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morning Subscribe