Iraqi Forces in Mosul Fight Daesh Counter-Attack
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Daesh (ISIL or ISIS) terrorists launched a counter-attack against advancing Iraqi forces in western Mosul during an overnight rain storm, as the battle for control of the militants' last major urban stronghold in Iraq intensified.
Explosions and gun fire rang out across the city's southwestern districts in the early hours of Thursday. The fighting eased in the late morning, although a Reuters correspondent saw an air strike and rebel mortar fire.
A senior Iraqi officer said Daesh staged its attack on units from the elite Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) when the storm and strong winds hampered air surveillance and on-the-ground visibility.
Iraqi forces captured the eastern side of Mosul in January after 100 days of fighting and launched their attack on the districts that lie west of the Tigris river on Feb. 19.
The Iraqi military believes several thousand militants, including many who traveled from Western countries, are hunkered down in Mosul among the remaining civilian population, which aid agencies estimated to number 750,000 at the start of the latest offensive.
The Takfiri militants are using suicide car bombers, snipers and booby traps to counter the offensive waged by the 100,000-strong force of Iraqi troops, Kurdish Peshmarga fighters and Hashd al-Shaabi forces.
More than 31,000 civilians have been forced from their homes in western Mosul in the latest phase of the battle that began on Feb. 19, while the total number displaced since the offensive for Mosul started in October exceeds 191,000, according to the United Nations.
The Iraqi military is taking women and children to camps and screening men to make sure they are not Daesh fighters. Hundreds of women and children gathered in one abandoned bus station in the rain to receive food from the army and a local charity.
Daesh overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in 2014, but Iraqi forces have since regained most of the territory they lost.
The operation to retake Mosul -- the last Daesh-held city in the country -- was launched on Oct. 17.
