Reuters - Iraqi forces
battled Islamic State fighters on the eastern edge of Mosul on Tuesday as the
two-week campaign to recapture the jihadists' last main bastion in Iraq
entered
a new phase of urban warfare.
Artillery and
air strikes pounded the city, still home to 1.5 million people, and residents
of the eastern neighborhood of al-Quds said the ultra-hardline Sunni militants
had resorted to street fighting to try to hold the army back.
Soldiers of
the elite Counter Terrorism Service (CST) also entered the state television
station in Mosul on Tuesday, the first capture of an important building in the
Islamic State-held city since the start of the offensive about two weeks ago,
the force commander, Lieutenant-General Talib Shaghati, said.
"This is
a good sign for the people of Mosul because the battle to liberate Mosul has
effectively begun," Shaghati said.
Iraqi troops,
security forces, Shi'ite militias and Kurdish peshmerga have been advancing on
several fronts toward Mosul, backed by U.S.-led troops and air forces. Special
forces units sweeping in from the east have made fastest progress.
"We are
currently fighting battles on the eastern outskirts of Mosul," CTS
Lieutenant-General Abdul Wahab al-Saidi said. "The pressure is on all
sides of the city to facilitate entry to the city center."
He said CTS
forces had cleared Islamic State fighters from most of the eastern district of
Kokjali, close to al-Quds, on Tuesday, "so now we are inside the district
of Mosul".
Blackish grey
smoke hung in the air east of the Islamists' stronghold and the regular sound
of outgoing artillery fire could be heard, said a Reuters reporter near
Bazwaia, about five km (three miles) east of Mosul.
Inside the
city, residents speaking to Reuters by telephone said they heard the sounds of
heavy clashes since dawn.
One inhabitant
of al-Quds district at the city's eastern entrance said bullets were fizzing
past and hitting the walls of houses, describing the explosions as
"deafening and frightening". Many people in the area have stayed
indoors for the last two days.
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"We can
see Daesh (Islamic State) fighters firing towards the Iraqi forces and moving
in cars between the alleys of the neighborhood. It's street fighting."
One witness
said he saw nine cars, laden with families and furniture, heading from the
eastern half of the to the west bank of the Tigris River to escape the
encroaching frontline.
Away from the
eastern fringe of the city, however, traffic was relatively normal, markets
were open, and Islamic State fighters were patrolling as usual.
"CHOP THE
SNAKE'S HEAD"
Mosul is many
times bigger than any other city held by Islamic State in Iraq or Syria. Its
recapture would mark the collapse of the Iraqi wing of the caliphate which it
declared in parts of both countries two years ago, although the hardline Sunni
militants have recovered from other setbacks in Iraq.
Prime Minister
Haider al-Abadi said on Monday that Iraqi forces were trying to close off all
escape routes for the several thousand Islamic State fighters inside Mosul.
"God
willing, we will chop off the snake's head," Abadi, wearing military
fatigues, told state television. "They have no escape, they either die or
surrender."
Commanders
have warned that the fight for Mosul, which could be the toughest of the
decade-long turmoil since the U.S. invasion which overthrew Saddam Hussein in
2003, is likely to last for months.
The United
Nations has said the Mosul offensive could also trigger a humanitarian crisis
and a possible refugee exodus if the civilians inside in Mosul seek to escape,
with up to 1 million people fleeing in a worst-case scenario.
The International
Organisation for Migration said that nearly 18,000 people have been displaced
since the start of the campaign on Oct. 17, excluding thousands of villagers
who were forced back into Mosul by retreating jihadists who used them as human
shields.
U.N. human
rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said Islamic State fighters tried to force
another 25,000 civilians from a town south of Mosul back toward the city on
Monday. Most of the trucks carrying them turned back under pressure from
patrolling aircraft, she said.
Not all those
heading back were doing so under duress from the militants, according to Mosul
residents who said people were streaming in from the south as military
operations edged closer to the city.
Most came
without any belongings, though some brought sheep and a few camels into the
city, they said.
In Bazwaia,
CTS guards told Reuters that a suicide car bomber tried to attack their
position early on Tuesday, but they halted it with machinegun fire. Rubble and
parts of the attacker's body could still be seen by a nearby berm.
As well as the
suicide attacks, the Islamic State militants have slowed the army's advance with
snipers, mortar fire, roadside bombs and booby traps inside abandoned
buildings.
In Bazwaia,
recaptured by Iraqi troops a day earlier, about a dozen civilians could be seen
coming out of the village, waving white flags and bringing with them their livestock
-- about 200 sheep and a few cows and donkeys.
Saidi, the CTS
officer, said 500 civilians had already been moved from Bazwaia to a camp for
displaced people further away from the frontline.
"We
expect to encounter more civilians as we push through the city," he said.
(Additional
reporting by Saif Hameed and Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad and Tom Miles in Geneva,
Reuters
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