Iraqi forces launch assault on Mosul

MOSUL, Iraq: Iraqi forces launched an assault on Sunday to retake Mosul’s Old City, the last district still held by the Islamic State group three years after the Jihadists seized the northern city and declared their "caliphate".

Military commanders told AFP the assault had begun at dawn after overnight air strikes by the US-led coalition backing Iraqi forces. They said the Jihadists were putting up fierce resistance.

The push into Mosul’s Old City -- a densely populated warren of narrow alleyways on the western side of Iraq’s second city -- marks the culmination of a months-long campaign by Iraqi forces to retake IS’s last major urban stronghold in the country.

The loss of Mosul would mark the effective end of the Iraqi portion of the cross-border "caliphate" IS declared in the summer of 2014 after seizing large parts of Iraq and neighbouring Syria.

The military announced the start of the assault in a statement, saying the army, counter-terrorism forces and federal police had "launched an attack on the Old City".

Machinegun fire crackled and plumes of smoke rose above the Old City as surrounding Iraqi positions were hit with heavy mortar fire.

On the first floor of a building on a street lined with destroyed car repair shops, a CTS commander holding a tablet computer feverishly called in coordinates for an air strike against a suicide car bomb approaching his position.

Staff Lieutenant General Abdulghani al-Assadi, a senior commander with the Counter-Terrorism Service, said the operation was advancing slowly "to preserve civilian lives as we breach the enemy’s defence lines".

"Our forces have moved in on foot because the alleys are very narrow," he said. "The strategy has changed compared to other operations. There is no room for our vehicles to manoeuvre and there are many civilians."

The United Nations said on Friday that IS may be holding more than 100,000 civilians as human shields in the Old City.

Surrounded by Iraqi forces on three sides and blocked on the other by the Tigris River that runs through Mosul, the Jihadists had no choice but a fight to the finish, Assadi said.

"This is the last episode of the Daesh show," he said, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

"It’s our most difficult operation. Fighting is fierce because it’s their last stronghold... They have nowhere to flee."

He said he hoped the operation could be concluded before Eid -- the festival marking the end of the month of Ramazan, expected around June 25 or 26 -- "but I think it is going to take longer".

Iraqi forces launched the battle for Mosul in October, retaking the eastern part of the city in January and starting the operation for its western part the following month.

The International Rescue Committee, a major aid group operating in Iraq, warned of the huge risks facing already-traumatised civilians.

"This will be a terrifying time for around 100,000 people still trapped in Mosul’s Old City and now at risk of getting caught up in the fierce street fighting to come," the IRC’s acting country director Nora Love said in a statement.