Iraqi special
forces battling to clear Islamic State from eastern Mosul have killed nearly
1,000 militants but fighting has slowed as troops face a mobile enemy hidden
among thousands of civilians in the city, a top commander said.
Six weeks into
a major offensive, Iraqi forces have captured nearly half of eastern Mosul,
moving from district to district against jihadist snipers, suicide attackers
and car bombs.
Elite Iraqi
troops, known as the "Golden Division", are the only brigades to have
entered Mosul from the east, with Iraqi army, federal police and Kurdish
Peshmerga units surrounding the city to the north and south. Shi'ite militias
are trying to complete the encirclement from the west.
The
U.S.-trained Counter Terrorism Service unit breached Islamic State's defenses
at the end of October, but has been slowed by the militants' mobile tactics and
concern over civilian casualties preventing the use of tanks and heavy armor.
Major General
Abdul Ghani al-Asadi, one of the commanders of the special forces, said troops
had adapted their tactics, surrounding one district at a time to cut off the
militants' supplies and protect civilians.
"Progress
was faster at the start. The reason is we were operating before in areas
without residents," Asadi told Reuters in Bartella, on Mosul's outskirts.
"We have
arrived in populated districts. So how do we protect civilians? We have sealed
off district after district."
He said around
990 militants had been killed in fighting in the east so far. He would not say
how many casualties there were among government special forces.
"We have
made changes to plans, partly due to the changing nature of the enemy ... Daesh
(Islamic State) is not based in one location, but moving from here to
there," he said.
"Tanks
don't work here, artillery is not effective. Planes from the coalition force
and the air force are restricted because of the civilians."
THOUSANDS
DISPLACED
The Iraqi government
has asked civilians in Mosul to stay at home during the offensive, as
humanitarian organizations say they cannot cope with an influx of hundred of
thousands of people displaced from the city.
More than one
million people are believed to remain in the city, the largest in northern
Iraq.
Defeating
Islamic State in Mosul, Islamic State's last major bastion in Iraq, is seen as
vital to destroying the "caliphate" declared by the group's leader,
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, from the pulpit of Mosul's Grand Mosque in July 2014.
But commanders
have said the battle could take months. Dozens of districts must be taken in
the east before attacking forces reach the Tigris River which splits Mosul into
east and west. U.S. air strikes have taken out four of the five river bridges
used by the militants.
Major General
Najm al-Jubbouri, one of the army's top commanders, told Reuters that the
western part of the city could be the more dangerous.
To the south,
Iraqi army brigades are now advancing slowly on the remaining Islamic
State-held villages before reaching the city limits. To the west, the mostly
Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias known as Popular Mobilisation have cut off the
highway to Syria, but they have yet to close in on the city.
"The
force left in front of us is small, unable to stop our advance. Their spirit is
broken," Asadi said.
"We have
killed more than 992 fighters on our front plus more wounded ... Their supplies
and communications to the outside world are cut. They stage fewer suicide
bombings."
Iraqi military
estimates initially put the number of insurgents in Mosul at 5,000 to 6,000,
facing a 100,000-strong coalition force. But Asadi said the figure for the
Islamic State presence may have been too high.
Iraqi
authorities have not released estimates of civilian casualties but the United
Nations says growing numbers of injured, both civilians and military, are
overwhelming aid groups.
Reuters
Follow Solenzo Blog on
0 Comments