Rudaw’s Sidad Lashkiri reported from the scene that heavy clashes were ongoing in Bab al-Sinjar where the Iraqi army’s 9th division and the Rapid Response unit are tightening the noose around ISIS where the militants remain in control of 25 percent of the neighborhood.
Beginning early in the morning, ISIS has used 11 car bombs to halt the army’s continued advances in Bab al-Sinjar. Army officials reported they had killed 15 militants.
In Old Mosul district, where the heaviest battle is taking place amid its old style houses and narrow alleys, ISIS launched a counterattack near the New Mosul Stadium. Iraqi forces fended off the assault, killing three militants.
The fight for Old Mosul, home to al-Nuri mosque where Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared his caliphate nearly three years ago, is expected to be the bloodiest in a conflict that has already been marked by horrific civilian casualties.
Iraqi forces had previously faced strong resistance when they tried to make advances against ISIS in Old Mosul, where it is more densely populated and the streets are narrower than the eastern part of the city. Changing tactics, Iraqi armed forces were forced to shift their focus and open a new front in northwestern Mosul earlier last month.
Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasoul, spokesperson of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command, said, “The Iraqi army’s advance on the Old Mosul district is ongoing. Iraqi fighter jets have inflicted great damages on ISIS.”
Rasoul added, “ISIS, through bombing and suicide bombers, is putting obstacles before our continued advances.”
Saturday’s advances come after the army declared Friday it had liberated Saha neighborhood from ISIS after several days of heavy clashes. Saha was considered one of the last ISIS pockets in west Mosul.
In Zanjali, army forces received reinforcements to drive ISIS out of the remaining 15 percent of the district.
Iraqi forces have been trying to take control of Shifa hospital in the neighborhood for a few weeks, but have not yet reached it.
“I suggest we will be able to bring Zanjali and Shifa neighborhoods under control in the next few days,” Rasoul said.
Visiting the frontlines earlier this week, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who is also commander-in-chief of the armed forces, predicted that victory over ISIS in the northern Iraqi city will come “very soon.”
ISIS has been forced into a small area of territory in the old centre of western Mosul, “less than 10 square kilometres,” coalition spokesperson Army Col. Ryan Dillon told reporters on Thursday.
Iraq has instructed civilians still remaining in the area to evacuate, Dillon said. “Many civilians, though, cannot break away from ISIS safely.”
Regarding the lives of civilians caught in crossfire between the army troops and the militants, Rasoul explained, “We have opened safe corridors for Mosul civilians.”
There are, however, many reports of civilians being killed as they try to flee. The UN reported more than 140 civilians have been killed as they tried to escape the fighting in the past week.
The coalition estimates that fewer than 1,000 militants remain in western Mosul.
