Coalition destroys Mosul bridge to isolate ISIL

Iraqi soldiers from the ninth armored brigade take part in military operation in the Al Shimaa district, south-east of Mosul, Iraq, 22 November 2016. EPA

Mosul // The US-led coalition bombed a key bridge in Mosul Tuesday to isolate extremists in the east of the city where stiff resistance is threatening to bog down Iraqi forces.

Since the start of the offensive last month against ISIL’s last stronghold in Iraq 68,000 civilians have been displaced but most of the city’s population remained trapped.

A coalition aircraft carried out an air raid on Mosul’s “third bridge”, leaving a British-era bridge in the centre as the last crossing of the Tigris River which runs through the city.

Coalition spokesman Colonel John Dorrian said ISIL fighters have been using the bridges to resupply the eastern side of the city, “essentially rotating their forces”.

“We’re not going to let that happen,” he said.

A member of the provincial council for Nineveh, of which Mosul is the capital, said the central bridge was the last remaining after four others over the Tigris had been destroyed.

ISIL has put up fierce resistance to defend Mosul, the city where its leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi proclaimed a “caliphate” in June 2014.

The eastern bank of the Tigris was expected to offer less resistance when tens of thousands of Iraqi forces launched the offensive on October 17 to retake the city.

Most of the extremists’ traditional bastions are on the western side of Mosul, as is the old city whose narrow streets will be hard to penetrate for the armoured vehicles of the government forces.

A spokesman for the International Organization for Migration voiced concern that the lack of bridges could further trap civilians, who ISIL have routinely used as human shields.

“That would deprive a lot of families with an avenue to get away from the fighting,” Joel Millman said.

Over five weeks, Iraqi forces advancing on several fronts have made considerable progress in the advance, but the fighting in Mosul itself has been tough.

Elite forces from the Counter-Terrorism Service — the best trained units in the country — have faced a daily barrage of mortar and sniper fire.

ISIL fighters have also launched car bombs driven by a seemingly endless supply of suicide bombers against their positions and convoys in the city.

“We’re just in the very toughest part of the fight,” Col Dorrian said.

Iraqi forces are “up against an enemy where the most likely course of action and the most dangerous course of action are often one and the same,” the coalition spokesman said.

The intensity of the fighting has made it difficult for the hundreds of thousands of civilians in Mosul to flee to safety in camps erected around the city.

“68,550 people are currently displaced and in need of humanitarian assistance,” the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Tuesday.

OCHA said the aid response to the offensive was growing in complexity, with varying needs for different categories of civilians.

The UN had initially predicted that 200,000 civilians could be forced from their homes in the first few weeks of the offensive, Iraq’s biggest military operation in years.

Iraqi forces have so far been sending the message to the population of Mosul that they should stay at home and not try to flee through the front lines.

*Agence France-Presse