THE US-backed Iraqi offensive to take back Mosul from Daesh (the so-called IS) gained fresh momentum on Thursday, with an armored division trying to advance into the city from the northern side. The militants are now besieged in the northwestern corner of Mosul which includes the historic Old City center and the medieval Grand Al-Nuri Mosque and its landmark leaning minaret where their black flag has been flying since June 2014. The Iraqi army's 9th Armored Division and the Rapid Response units of the Interior Ministry have opened a new front in the northwest of the city, according to an Iraqi military statement. The attack will help the elite Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) and Interior Ministry Federal Police troops who are painstakingly advancing from the south. "Our forces are making a steady advance in the first hours of the offensive and Daesh fighters are breaking and retreating," Brigadier General Yahya Rasool, a spokesman for the joint operations command, told state television A US-led international coalition is providing key air and ground support to the offensive on Mosul, Daesh's de facto capital in Iraq, which started in October. It was from the pulpit of the Grand Al-Nuri Mosque that Daesh leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi revealed himself to the world in July 2014, declaring a "caliphate" that spanned parts of Syria and persecuted non-Sunni communities as well as Sunnis who did not abide by its extreme interpretation of Islam. "An armored division should not be going into narrow alleyways and streets but we will," Lt. Gen. Qassem Al-Maliki, commander of the 9th Armored Division told Reuters. "There are sometimes troop shortages or orders that require us to do so and we will do our duty," he told Reuters in an interview at a base southwest of Mosul. The Iraqi army said on April 30 said it aimed to finish the battle for Mosul, the largest city to have fallen under Daesh control in both Iraq and Syria, this month. Daesh's defeat in Mosul will not mean the end of the hardline Sunni group which remains in control of parts of Syria and vast swathes of Iraqi territory near the Syrian border. Shaping the battlefield Close US support should help the involvement of the armored division and reduce the risk for civilians, US Army Lt. Col. James Browning, the partnered advisor to the Iraqi 9th Armored Division, told Reuters at the base. "Everything I am trying to do is try to shape the battlefield for him," Browning, a battalion commander from the 82nd Airborne Division, said of Maliki. "I am looking at trying to strike right in front of him as well as deep, even into Old Mosul." The war is taking a heavy toll on civilians trapped behind Daesh lines and used by the militants as shields. Local officials and eyewitnesses have said as many as 240 people may have died in March in the Al-Jadida district of western Mosul when a blast made a building collapse. The US military has acknowledged that the US-led coalition probably had a role in the March 17 explosion, but said Daesh also could be to blame. — Reuters
