Iraqi forces push deeper into east Mosul

Bartella/Ali Rash: Iraqi special forces recaptured six districts of eastern Mosul on Friday, a military statement said, expanding the army's foothold in the IS bastion a day after its leader told his militant followers there could be no retreat. An officer in the elite Counter Terrorism Service, which has spearheaded the Mosul offensive, said its troops had launched a major operation against the militants who are now almost surrounded in their last major urban redoubt in Iraq. CTS special forces took over the neighbourhoods of Malayeen, Samah, Khadra, Karkukli, Quds and Karama, the statement said, inflicting heavy losses on the militants and raising the Iraqi flag over buildings. One Mosul resident, speaking to Reuters by phone, said he could still hear the sound of fighting coming from one of those districts. The territory taken by the government still amounts to just a fraction of the sprawling city, which is divided into dozens of residential and industrial districts and held 2 million people before it was captured by IS in 2014. The battle to drive the fighters out is the biggest ground operation in Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003. The advances took the troops 1 mile (1 1/2 km) inside the city. Districts captured so far, however, are less built-up than other areas, particularly those on the west bank of the Tigris River, where the hardliners could be more deeply embedded. Iraqi officers and those from a US-led coalition providing air and ground support to the offensive say progress has been faster than expected, but stress that the operation is still in its early stages. Speaking at the CTS command post in the village of Bartella, east of Mosul, a senior officer said the advancing troops were coming up against fierce opposition, including car bombs and sniper fire. In the village of Ali Rash, 7 km (4 miles) to the south east, a Reuters reporter heard helicopter gunships and cannon fire over Mosul. Volleys of automatic rifle fire, possibly from the militants, were also audible and smoke could be seen rising from the east of the city. An officer in the village said Iraqi troops had also taken two thirds of another Mosul district, Intisar, in the same eastern section of the city. IS fighters "are trying to get away", Lieutenant-General Qassem Jassim Nazzal told Reuters. In a sign of the fierce resistance which soldiers have encountered since entering the city on Monday, Nazzal said they blew up six bomb-laden cars, killed two suicide bombers, and killed 30 other people. In the village of Ali Rash, retaken by Iraqi forces sweeping towards Mosul from the south and the east, the bloated and blackened bodies of three IS fighters, dressed in khaki trousers and military boots, were left out in the open. "They're criminals, let the dogs eat them," another officer said. Iraqi regular troops and special forces, militias, Kurdish peshmerga fighters and other groups backed by US-led air strikes launched their campaign to retake Mosul nearly three weeks ago. In a speech released on Thursday IS leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi - whose whereabouts are unknown - said there could be no retreat in a "total war" against the forces arrayed against IS, telling fighters they must remain loyal to their commanders. Mosul is still home to nearly 1.5 million people, who risk being caught up in brutal urban warfare. The United Nations has warned of a potential humanitarian crisis and a refugee exodus. Iraqi officials say IS is holding the civilian population as human shields. UN human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said on Friday IS fighters had killed hundreds of people, including 50 deserters and 180 former Iraqi government employees, around Mosul. They have also transported 1,600 people from the town of Hammam Al Alil, south of Mosul, to Tal Afar to the west, possibly for use as human shields against air strikes, and told residents to hand over boys above the age of nine, in an apparent recruitment drive for child soldiers. The United Nations says 22,000 people have been displaced since the start of the Mosul campaign, not including thousands from outlying villages forced to head to Mosul by retreating IS fighters who used them as human shields. Mosul residents, speaking to Reuters by telephone, said IS fighters were deploying artillery and rocket launchers in and near residential areas. Some were hidden in trees near the Wahda district in the south, while others were deployed on the rooftops of houses taken over by the militants in the Ghizlani district close to Mosul airport, they said. "We saw Daesh (IS) fighters installing a heavy anti-aircraft machine gun alongside a rocket launchpad, and mortars as well," one Mosul resident said. People in southern and eastern neighbourhoods reported on Thursday night that their houses had been shaken by artillery and rocket barrages launched from their districts towards the advancing troops. As well as the IS resistance in Mosul itself, the militants have launched diversionary attacks across the country since the start of the offensive. In the town of Shirqat, about 100km (60 miles) south of Mosul, militants stormed a mosque and several houses early on Friday, a local police officer said, killing seven soldiers and fighters from the Popular Mobilisation force. The insurgents crossed from the eastern bank of the Tigris into the town at 3am, taking over Al Baaja mosque and fanning out into alleyways. Security forces imposed a curfew and said reinforcements from the Popular Mobilisation, or Hashid Shaabi, forces were being sent to the town. In their drive towards Mosul, Iraqi troops and Kurdish peshmerga fighters have closed in from the north, from the eastern Nineveh plains and up the Tigris from the south. The Hashid Shaabi forces of militias joined the campaign on Saturday, launching an offensive to cut off the west. A Hashid spokesman said they had made progress but had not completely closed off the western flank, and their fighters had seen some cars leaving Mosul on Thursday.