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Battle for Mosul: Iraqi Forces Moving Toward Landmark Mosque

Battle for Mosul: Iraqi Forces Moving Toward Landmark Mosque
folder_openIraq access_time6 years ago
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Iraqi Special Forces and police fought Daesh [the Arabic acronym for the Takfiri ‘ISIS/ISIL' group] terrorists to edge closer to the al-Nuri mosque in western Mosul Wednesday, tightening their control around the landmark site in the battle to liberate Iraq's second city, military commanders said.

Battle for Mosul: Iraqi Forces Moving Toward Landmark Mosque

The close-quarters fighting is focused on the Old City surrounding the mosque where Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed a caliphate nearly three years ago across territory controlled by the group in both Iraq and Syria.

Thousands of residents have fled the Daesh-held areas inside Mosul, the terrorists' biggest remaining stronghold in Iraq. But tens of thousands more are still trapped inside homes, caught in the fighting, shelling and air strikes as Iraqi forces advance in the west.

Helicopters circling west Mosul strafed Daesh positions beyond the city train station, the site of heavy back-and-forth fighting in recent days, and thick black smoke rose into the sky, Reuters correspondents reported.

Heavy sustained gunfire could be heard from the Old City area, where militants are hiding among residents and using the alleyways, traditional family homes and snaking narrow roads to their advantage, fleeing residents said.

"Federal police forces have imposed full control over the Qadheeb al-Ban area and the al-Malab sports stadium in the western wing of Old Mosul and are besieging the terrorists around the al-Nuri mosque," federal police chief Lieutenant General Raed Shaker Jawdat said in a statement.

Rapid Response elite interior ministry troops were advancing on the edge of the Old City, clambering over garden walls. Daesh responded with rocket fire, streaking the sky with white smoke plumes.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

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