MOSUL/ERBIL: Iraqi forces battled their way along two streets that meet in the heart of Mosul’s Old City on Friday, and said they aimed to open routes for civilians to flee IS’ last stand there.
US-trained urban warfare units are leading the fight in the maze of narrow alleyways of the Old City, the last district in the hands of the insurgents.
Iraqi authorities are hoping to declare victory in the northern Iraqi city in the Eid holiday, during the next few days.
Military analysts say government troops’ advance will gather pace after IS fighters blew up the 850-year-old Al Nuri mosque and its famous leaning minaret on Wednesday.
Its destruction gives the troops more freedom in attack as they no longer have to worry about damaging the ancient site.
It was in the Al Nuri mosque that IS’ leader, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, proclaimed its “caliphate” over parts of Iraq and Syria three years ago.
A US-led international coalition is providing air and ground support in the eight-month-old offensive to drive the militants from their de-facto capital in Iraq.
A map published by the Iraqi forces media office showed the elite Counter Terrorism Service pushing along Al Faruq Street, from north to south, and Nineveh Street, from east to west.
The two roads cross in the centre of the Old City. When the troops reach this point, they will have isolated the remaining IS fighters in four separate pockets.
“The aim is to open ways for civilians to evacuate, we give them indications by lousdspeaker when it’s possible,” an Iraqi military spokesman said by phone.
Seven thousand civilians were brought out of the Old City during the day, the Iraqi state news website said.
Journalists in Mosul saw people reaching safety. Some were injured, and some had been carried on army humvees to rear positions where they were given bananas, biscuits and water.
“The army’s 16th division evacuated us,” said a man who had fled with his wife and 15-day-old baby.
“God bless them,” said another man, who was limping.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) reported an influx of wounded people to its trauma clinic in the west of the war torn city on Friday morning.
“This... is yet another example of the horrific suffering and indiscriminate violence suffered by civilians, including women and children,” said Jonathan Henry, MSF Emergency Coordinator for West Mosul, in a statement.
More than 100,000 civilians, of whom half are children, are trapped in the crumbling old houses of Old City, with little food, water or medical treatment.
Aid organisations say IS has stopped many from leaving, using them as human shields. Hundreds of civilians fleeing the Old City have been killed in the past three weeks.
The Iraqi government once hoped to take Mosul by the end of 2016, but the bloody campaign has dragged on. — Reuters
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