"I don't want to say they continue to advance at pace, when in reality, it's very, very slow and it's a very, very hard, gut-busting fight between our forces and theirs,” US Col. John Dorrian said during a Thursday teleconference.
"The Iraqi security forces do continue to advance,” he added, not wanting to provide a timeline for the completion of operations in western Mosul. “We knew it was going to be very difficult.”
Dorrian said Iraqi security forces are making “incremental progress” because of a combination of ISIS strategies.
"[ISIS has] no single tactic. They have a layered defense. They've two years to build it,” he said, adding that those defenses in western Mosul have included tunnels, off-the-shelf drones, snipers and vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs).
“Unfortunately, one of the ones that's most problematic and hardest to deal with is their use of human shields,” he added. “They've intensified efforts to bring civilians into harms way.”
A March 17 air strike by the coalition is being investigated by a team of Iraqi and US officers. Dorrian didn’t have a timeline for the report, but he noted lab work was being conducted to test substances from the site, as well as speaking to survivors, and reporters who had visited the area.
Rudaw has reported that 200 people have been killed in the airstrikes, and spoken with survivors.
The slowdown in pace of territorial gains is in-line with statements from Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.
In a March 25 statement, "Abadi affirmed that our forces very careful on the citizens' safety while Daesh used bombing cars, loaded weapons in residential areas, in that case we used very precise guided weapons in order to ensure citizens' safety, demanding citizens in providing help to accelerate the end of the battle, and get rid of Daesh [ISIS]."
Nearly 500 square-kilometers have been cleared by security forces since the Feb. 19 offensive for western Mosul began, and Dorrian explained where Iraqi security forces have been making gains.
Iraq’s elite Counter Terrorism Service (ICTS) continues to spearhead progress in the dense urban terrain in the Old City overcoming direct fire engagements from the enemy.
The Iraqi Federal Police and Iraqi Emergency Response Division continue along the Tigris "although incremental due to sniper fire and human shields."
To the west of the city the 36th Brigade cleared territory north of Badush [less than 15 kilometers south of Mosul Dam lake].
The 16th Iraqi army division continues securing eastern Mosul as a hold force.
Despite the incremental progress in western Mosul, Dorrian claimed millions victimized by ISIS are now better off.
"Millions of people have been able to return to their homes because of the roll back of ISIS territorial gains,” he said, “and coalition strikes are a big part of that."
