ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The initial mission of the fresh offensive that began on Sunday to retake Mosul from the ISIS group has concluded after the liberation of the key village of Albu Saif on the edges of the strategic Mosul airport, Iraqi military officials said.
Lieutenant General Raed Shaker Jawdat, chief of the federal police said that they have fully liberated the village, along with controlling its heights overlooking the area leading to the airport, the police statement explained.
Jawdat earlier had said that they are within 2 kilometers of the airport.
The commander of the Nineveh operation said in a military statement that with the liberation of Albu Saif and As Sahaji village southwest of the city in a joint offensive by the Iraqi army and the mainly Shiite paramilitary, and Lazakah, the initial mission for the Iraqi forces has concluded, paving the way for the next page of the operation to kick off closer to the edges of the western parts of the city which are still under the full control of the extremist group.
“With this the federal police forces, the ninth armoured division and the Abbas division [of Hashd al-Shaabi] have achieved its objectives outlined to it in the first page of the third phase of the ‘We are Coming Nineveh,’” Lieutenant General Abdul Amir Rashid Yarallah said Monday evening, referring to the code name for the Mosul operation which began October 17.
Lt. Gen. Yarallah already had declared Lazakah liberated on Sunday, when it was reported Iraqi Security forces claimed more than a dozen villages, mostly abandoned by civilians.
The federal police destroyed a car bomb and a motorcycle as they pushed on Monday to Albu Saif, located south of Mosul, the statement said.
Many ISIS dead bodies were left behind near Albu Saif, scattered on the ground, and ISIS militants could be seen fleeing on motorcycles, a Rudaw reporter, who was embedded with the Iraqi forces in the area described.
Coalition warplanes provided air support in support of the federal police, shelling ISIS positions and movements in the village.
Hashd al-Shaabi controlled the road that connects west Mosul, according to a statement from the group. The route was described by the Abbas division’s commander, Maitham al-Zubayde as “the last supply line between western Mosul and Tal Afar.”
The next stage of the operation will be spearheaded by the elite Iraqi Counter Terrorism Service (ICTS), and the elite Quick Response Units of the federal police, Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasul, the spokesperson for Iraqi Joint Command told Rudaw on Sunday evening, adding that the fight in residential areas will be “harder” in western Mosul, and therefore need “well trained forces” who are up to the challenge when the fighting goes into Mosul proper.
To protect civilian lives and the infrastructure, Rasul said, “We will depend on forces who are well-trained and have gained experience in fighting in the residential areas and street fighting, that are represented by the Counter Terrorism Service and the Quick Response Units that belong to the federal police.”
He added that Iraqi forces will face an army of at least 1,800 militants, and 200 suicide bombers, noting that they have “accurate intelligence” on ISIS positions, methods, and their movements in ISIS-held areas in western Mosul.
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