MOSUL // Iraqi special forces on Friday reached a second bridge linking east Mosul to the west of the city, which is still under ISIL control, as troops raised the Iraqi over the governance headquarters of Nineveh province.
In a parallel advance in the offensive on Mosul, Iraqi troops also entered the Mosul University complex in the north-east of the city.
Elite Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) units reached the southern 2nd Bridge, also known as Freedom Bridge, one of five running across the river that bisects Mosul from north to south, the military reported. Iraqi forces have now reached two of the bridges, after battling their way to the southernmost 4th Bridge several days ago.
All the bridges have been hit by US-led coalition air strikes in an effort to hamper ISIL’s ability to move about the city. ISIL has damaged two of the bridges further to hinder any Iraqi advance across the river.
News of the Iraqi flag flying over Nineveh province headquarters was relayed by Elissa Slotkin, the acting assistant secretary of defence for international security affairs.
“It is both a symbolic victory and a significant operational victory,” she announced in a briefing at the Pentagon. She also said a US liaison team is discussing how to help Turkish forces fighting near Al Bab in Syria.
“We are engaged on an hourly basis with the Turks on counter-ISIL campaign in Syria,” said Ms Slotkin. “We have provided some ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance) support in Al Bab ... those are the kinds of things that we are talking about.”
Iraqi forces are now in control of most of eastern Mosul. Assaults on the west will be able to begin once they have secured the east bank of the Tigris.
Meanwhile in north-east Mosul, Iraqi troops entered the university grounds in the morning and had secured control of neighbouring Hadba district by the afternoon as well as the technical institute within the campus, according to Brig Gen Haider Fadhil and Maj Gen Sami Al Aridi of Iraqi special forces.
“We broke through the terrorists’ defences and we destroyed their lines and their units and their bases,” said Gen. Al Aridi, who was overseeing Friday’s advance.
Founded in the 1960s, the university was one of the top educational institutions in Iraq, drawing students from all over the country and reflecting the city’s once diverse ethnic make-up. After Mosul fell to ISIL in the summer of 2014, the shutters came down on the sprawling complex, most of the academics fled and the university was quickly converted into a base for the militants who used its medical and engineering departments. Now the campus is riddled with secret tunnels and passageways built during ISIL’s two-and-a-half-year occupation. It has also been hit by coalition air strikes and artillery. The coalition said it had dropped at least 43 munitions since December 29 on the university complex, targeting the laboratories where ISIL researched chemical weapons, the buildings where they built car bombs and “warped the purpose of a beloved institution of higher learning when they used the university for military purposes”.
The push into Mosul University came a day after Iraqi army forces north of the city linked up with troops pushing in from the city’s eastern edge. Iraqi forces now have Mosul mostly surrounded but the most significant advances on the city have come from the eastern front and in the eastern half of the city.
Lt Gen Abdul Wahab Al Saadi of Iraqi special forces said it was unclear if ISIL militants were still operating from the university as they repeatedly shift base when they come under fire, using civilians for cover. However, Lt Gen Al Saadi hailed the capture of the university as a major symbolic victory.
* Associated Press and Reuters