Mosul will be free soon: Iraqi PM to residents

(AhlulBayt News Agency) - Iraqi troops advancing towards Mosul have been battling for the last town left between them and the ISIS stronghold to the north, already under assault from special forces fighting inside the city's eastern districts.

The commander of the Mosul operations, Major General Najm al Jabouri, said the attack on Hammam al-Alil, about 15 kilometres south of Mosul, targeted a force of at least 70 ISIS terrorists in the Tigris river town.

Major General Jabouri said some militants had tried to escape across the river as the morning assault began, although others put up heavy resistance and the troops had thwarted three attempted suicide car bombings.

Lieutenant-General Raed Shakir Jawdat said security forces were in control of the centre of Hammam al-Alil, although he did not say whether the militants had been pushed out completely.

Another unit advanced further north up the western bank of the Tigris river on Saturday, Lieutenant-General Lawdat added.

"Our elite forces have reached an area just 4 kilometres from Mosul airport," he told Al-Hurra television channel.

An earlier military statement said security forces had raised the Iraqi flag over a Government building in the town, but did not say whether it was fully under their control.

The army and accompanying security forces aimed to push the southern front up to Mosul to join troops and special forces that broke into the city's east this week, taking six districts and carving out a foothold in the militants' Iraq bastion.

Recapturing Mosul would effectively crush the Iraqi half of a self-proclaimed caliphate declared by ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi from the a Mosul mosque two years ago. The group also controls large parts of east Syria.

On a visit to the eastern battle front, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al Abadi said he brought "a message to the residents inside Mosul who are hostages in the hands of Daesh [ISIS] — we will liberate you soon".

Mr Abadi said progress in the nearly three-week-old campaign, and the advance into Mosul itself, had been faster than expected.

But in the face of fierce resistance, including suicide car bombings, sniper fire and roadside bombs, he suggested that progress may be intermittent.

"Our heroic forces will not retreat and will not be broken. Maybe in the face of terrorist acts, criminal acts, there will be some delay," he said.

So far the area which the army says it controls in east Mosul remains only a small part of the city which was home to 2 million people before ISIS took over in 2014.





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