ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Mosul's fifth bridge – the only one not bombed by the US-led coalition in the war against ISIS – has been left intact so that civilians have a way of getting across the Tigris River that bisects the city.
"We continue to observe that bridge, and we have cratered the roads that lead to it," Col. John Dorrian told Rudaw TV on Saturday.
"What it does, it enables us to observe the traffic on the bridge while retaining it in place for the people of Mosul," he explained.
In late November coalition airstrikes "disabled" four of Mosul's five bridges. At the time the coalition's' deputy commander Maj. Gen. Rupert Jones said this helps reduce the number of deadly car bomb attacks carried out by the militants.
The only bridge – known as the Old Mosul Bridge – still connects Mosul's east and west, which are divided by the Tigris.
Kurdish and Iraqi forces, with coalition backing, began an offensive in mid-October to evict ISIS out of Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city which has been under the militants' control since June 2014.
Fazil Barwari, commander of the Iraqi Golden Force, told Rudaw over the weekend that their forces expect to reach the Tigris River within a few days.
"We will get to the Tigris River in the near future. We are 3.5 kilometers away from the Old Mosul Bridge," said Barwari.
More than seven weeks after the launch of the Mosul offensive, the Iraqi army says they have liberated 31 districts in eastern and northeastern Mosul.
