Iraqi forces close in on Mosul mosque as residents flee

Smoke rises during clashes between Iraqi forces and ISIL militants in Mosul, Iraq on March 19, 2017. Thaier Al Sudani/Reuters

MOSUL // Iraqi troops on the ground closed in on the strategic and symbolic prize of the Al Nuri Mosque in Mosul on Sunday as army helicopters strafed and fired rockets at ISIL positions in the Old City.

Federal police troops had advanced past the train station in western Mosul closer to the mosque. A police commander said they were very close to taking control of it.

Residents fled from the area, carrying bags of belongings and picking their way through the wrecked buildings as shells and gunfire echoed behind them. Most of them were women and children.

“Federal police and Rapid Response forces resumed their advance after halting operations due to bad weather. The troops have a target of retaking the rest of the Old City,” a police spokesman said.

The battle to recapture ISIL’s last stronghold in Iraq has now entered its sixth month. Iraqi government forces, backed by US advisers, artillery and air support, have cleared the east and half of western Mosul and are now focused on controlling the Old City.

Recent fighting has targeted the centuries-old Al Nuri Mosque, with its famous leaning minaret. Its capture would be a blow for ISIL as its leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi declared a caliphate from the mosque in July 2014 after the militants had seized swathes of Iraq and Syria.

US officials estimate about 2,000 ISIL fighters remain inside Iraq’s second largest city, resisting with mortar fire, snipers and suicide car bombs that plough into army positions.

The black ISIL flag still flew from the mosque’s minaret on Sunday.

Federal police moved in on foot from near the train station towards the Old City, trotting through rubble-filled streets.

Speaking from the frontline, police commander General Khalid Al Obedi said: “We are advancing toward the Old City. Their resistance is weakening. They are mostly using car bombs and that shows they are losing on the ground.”

Federal police also arrested Husam Sheet Al Jabouri, the local chief of Diwan Al Hisba, an ISIL unit responsible for enforcing strict Islamic rules, in Mosul’s Bab Al Sijin area, police said.

As fighting entered into the narrow alleyways and densely populated parts of west Mosul, more residents fled liberated areas where food and water are scarce and homes are often caught in shelling.

Families with elderly relatives and children marched through western Mosul, past buildings pock-marked by bullet and bombs on Saturday. Some said they had hardly eaten in weeks, scrambling for supplies handed out by a local aid agency.

“It is terrible, Islamic State have destroyed us. There is no food, no bread. There is absolutely nothing,” said one resident.

As many as 600,000 civilians may be caught inside the city with the militants. About 255,000 people have been displaced from Mosul and surrounding areas since October, according to UN figures.

* Reuters