SOUTH OF MOSUL: US-backed Iraqi security forces captured Mosul airport on Thursday, state television said, in a major gain in operations to drive Islamic State from the western half of the city.
Elite Counter Terrorism forces advanced from the southwestern side and entered the Ghozlani army base along with the southwestern districts of Tal al-Rumman and al-Mamoun.
Losing Mosul could spell the end of the Iraqi side of militants’ self-styled caliphate in Iraq and Syria, which Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared from the city after sweeping through vast areas of Iraq in 2014.
Iraqi forces hope to use the airport as a launchpad for their campaign to drive the militants from Iraq’s second largest city.
A Reuters correspondent saw more than 100 civilians fleeing towards Iraqi security forces from the district of al-Mamoun. Some of them were wounded.
"Daesh fled when counter terrorism Humvees reached al-Mamoun.
We were afraid and we decided to escape towards the Humvees," said Ahmed Atiya, one of the escaped civilians said, referring to Islamic State by its Arabic name.
"We were afraid from the shelling,” he added.
Federal police and an elite interior ministry unit known as Rapid Response had battled their way into the airport as Islamic State fighters fought back using suicide car bombs, a Reuters correspondent in the area south of Mosul airport said.
Police officers said the militants had also deployed bomb-carrying drones against the Iraqi Counter Terrorism Forces advancing from the southwestern side of the city.
"We are attacking Daesh (Islamic State) from multiple fronts to distract them and prevent them regrouping," said federal police captain Amir Abdul Kareem, whose units are fighting near Ghozlani military base.
"It’s the best way to knock them down quickly."
Western advisers supporting Iraqi forces were seen some 2 km away from the frontline to the southwest of Mosul, a Reuters correspondent said.
Iraqi forces last month ousted Islamic State from eastern Mosul and embarked on a new offensive against the militant group in densely-populated western Mosul this week.
The campaign involves a 100,000-strong force of Iraqi troops, Kurdish fighters and militias and has made rapid advances since the start of the year, aided by new tactics and improved coordination.