Nearly 90% of west Mosul recaptured, say Iraq forces

Displaced Iraqis flee during clashes between government forces and ISIL militants in western Mosul on May 16, 2017. Danish Siddiqui / Reuters

BAGHDAD // Iraqi forces have recaptured nearly 90 per cent of west Mosul from ISIL after retaking the city’s eastern side earlier this year, a military spokesman said on Tuesday.

ISIL still controls “10.5 per cent of ... the right bank”, Brigadier General Yahya Rasool, spokesman for the Joint Operations Command, said, referring to west Mosul.

Mosul is split by the Tigris River, and its western side is referred to as the right bank, while the east is known as the left bank.

Iraqi forces launched the massive operation to retake Mosul from ISIL nearly seven months ago, fighting their way to the extremist-held city, retaking its eastern side and then attacking the west.

The drive to retake Mosul has been supported by US-led air strikes that have aided the Iraqi advance but also reportedly caused hundreds of civilian casualties in the city.

“More than 300 vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (car bombs) have been destroyed by coalition strikes in Mosul,” said coalition spokesman Colonel John Dorrian.

ISIL now controls just a handful of neighbourhoods around the Old City, one of the country’s heritage jewels.

The area’s narrow streets and closely-spaced buildings make it difficult for Iraq’s federal forces to take on the extremists, requiring them to fight on foot instead of from vehicles as they have previously done.

Half a million people are currently displaced as a result of the battle for Mosul, and some 250,000 civilians are estimated to be still trapped inside the city’s west.

The Norwegian Refugee Council said the biggest single-day displacement since the start of the operation took place on Thursday last week, with around 20,000 people fleeing west Mosul.

The presence of a large civilian population in the remaining ISIL-held neighbourhoods complicates any final assault to seal victory in Mosul. The civilians in these areas either chose not to leave or were prevented from doing so by ISIL.

Human shields have become a central feature of the vastly outnumbered extremists' defences, and ISIL has stopped at nothing to deter people from escaping the city, including killing people who seek to flee.

But that is not the only threat. Trapped residents reached inside ISIL-held areas have warned that hunger is starting to kill more people than the fighting.

In eastern Mosul, life returned to a semblance of normality fairly quickly after Iraqi forces drove the extremists back neighbourhood by neighbourhood until the area was fully recaptured earlier this year.

The city’s first post-ISIL liquor store has opened in east Mosul, and is doing brisk business among people who were denied easy access to alcohol for more than two years.

ISIL overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in 2014, but Iraqi forces backed by US-led air strikes have since retaken much of the territory.

* Agence France-Presse