Mosul Battle: Iraq Forces Press Assault, Hunt Kirkuk Attackers
Local Editor
Iraqi forces battled Sunday through booby-traps, sniper fire and suicide car bombs to tighten the noose around Mosul, while also hunting Daesh [Arabic Acronym for "ISIS"/ "ISIL"] terrorists behind attacks elsewhere in the country.
Kurdish forces announced a new push at dawn on Bashiqa, northeast of Mosul, where thousands of fighters are engaged in a huge assault to take the Daesh-held town.
Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the peshmerga had requested and received Turkish military assistance.
"They [Peshmerga] asked for help from our soldiers at Bashiqa base. We are providing support with artillery, tanks and howitzers," Yildirim told reporters in western Turkey Sunday.
Ankara's claim came a day after Baghdad turned down a suggestion by visiting US War chief Ashton Carter - who met Kurdish leader Massud Barzani Sunday - that Turkey be given a part in the battle.
Launched last Monday, the assault aims to reclaim the last major Iraqi city under Daesh control, dealing another setback to the terrorist self-declared "caliphate" in Iraq and neighboring Syria.
Carter said Sunday that the idea of simultaneous operations against Mosul and Raqqa in Syria "has been part of our planning for quite a while."
He also said destroying Daesh's external operations capabilities was "our highest priority."
The extremists Friday staged a surprise assault on Iraq's Kurdish-controlled city of Kirkuk, and two days later security forces were still tracking down Daesh militants there.
The dozens of attackers, including several suicide bombers, failed to seize key government buildings but sowed chaos in the large oil-rich and ethnically mixed city.
At least 51 of the extremists have been killed, including three more Sunday, local security officials said.
At least 46 people, most of them in the security forces, were also killed in the raid and ensuing clashes, which had almost completely ceased by late Sunday.
Life was returning to normal in some parts of Kirkuk, but security forces in southern neighborhoods were still hunting for several gunmen.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
Comments
- Related News
Islamic Resistance in Iraq Targets “Eilat”
4 months ago
