Iraqi forces have pushed beyond Mosul International Airport and a nearby military camp and are preparing to move on the southernmost neighborhoods of western Mosul, Iraq’s Joint Operations Command said Friday.
The command released a map showing the progress as its forces embark on the second phase of a months-long operation to push ISIS militants from the key Iraqi city.
A CNN crew near the airport reported an intense bombardment Friday on ISIS targets in the southern suburbs.
All day, attack helicopters have been firing missiles and heavy machine guns into the city, the crew said. A group of American spotters was providing targeting information to the helicopters. Iraqi troops could also be seen heading toward the front line.
The firepower seems more intense than when Iraqi forces moved into eastern Mosul last year, the crew said.
An Iraqi military spokesman told CNN earlier Friday that the Ghazlani military camp on the outskirts of southwestern Mosul had been fully liberated from ISIS militants.
Iraqi flags are now flying atop the buildings of the strategic military base near the city’s airport, Col. Mohamad Bayzani of the Joint Operations Command said, quoting a statement.
According to Bayzani, ISIS suffered many casualties in the battle, and much of the militant group’s weaponry was destroyed. The statement was issued on behalf of the commander of Iraqi forces in Nineveh, Gen. Abdul Amir Rasheed Yarallah.
Iraqi forces are working to secure all areas around the airport and the Ghazlani camp complexes. They now control Albu Sayf, a hilltop village overlooking the airport, and an area to the west of the airport as well as the Sukkar neighborhood.
They also hold the Mamoun neighborhood to the north of the airport, while the Shuhada and Tal Rouman areas are now mainly under their control.
On Sunday, Iraqi forces launched a new bid to retake the western parts of the city after declaring the east had been liberated last month.
Iraqi jets target ISIS
On Friday morning, Iraqi F16 fighter jets also carried out strikes on ISIS targets in both Syria and Iraq for the first time.
The strikes were carried out on the order of Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, according to statements from his office and the Joint Operation Command. They were a response to devastating car bomb attacks in Baghdad’s al-Bayaa and al-Habibiya neighborhoods that killed scores of people in mid-February.
The airstrikes destroyed ISIS bases in the Syrian border town of Abu Kamal and Husaiba in Iraq’s western Anbar province, the statements said.
Full control
Iraqi forces secured the airport in Mosul, a key early objective in the second phase of the Mosul operation, overnight Thursday.
The airport — largely destroyed by ISIS forces since its seizure in 2014 — is now fully under Iraqi Federal Police control, said Col. Abdel Amir Mohamed, commander of its rapid response unit.
Brett McGurk, the US envoy for the anti-ISIS coalition, congratulated Iraq for the victory.
“Congratulations to Iraqi forces for completing complex maneuver ops to secure #Mosul airport from #ISIS terrorists,” he tweeted. “#ISIS is now trapped.”
British Major Gen. Rupert Jones, deputy commander of Operation Inherent Resolve, offered a more muted assessment of the situation on the ground, telling CNN’s Christiane Amanpour the airport looks “reasonably well-secured.”
“It’s been a really good day,” said Jones, speaking Thursday from Baghdad. “The Iraqis are on the airfield.”
A CNN crew saw piles of rubble littering the runway, which ISIS placed there to prevent anyone using the airport.
Iraqi Federal Police and rapid response forces, backed by drones and heavy artillery, advanced from several positions to storm the airport, Lt. Gen. Raid Shakir Jaudat said in a statement.
Forces took the airport in a few hours and appear to be moving swiftly.
But the push to take western Mosul is expected to take some time — it took more than three months to wrest the city’s east from ISIS’ control.
The International Rescue Committee, a humanitarian group, warned that this part of the operation could be the “most dangerous phase” for civilians in western Mosul as Iraqi troops seek to secure densely populated areas amid ISIS resistance.
“This will be a terrifying moment for the 750,000 people still in the west of the city, and there is a real danger that the battle will be raging around them for weeks and possibly months to come,” said Jason Kajer, the group’s Iraq acting country director.
“Everything must be done to keep civilians out of the firing line, and as Iraqi forces reach individual neighborhoods, people must be given the opportunity to escape the city safely.”
The east and west is divided by the Tigris River, and US-led coalition airstrikes have damaged all five bridges connecting the two sides in an effort to contain the militants in the west.
The offensive to retake Mosul began in October in an extraordinary union of Iraqi troops and militia representing minority ethnic and religious groups that have often stood on opposing sides in Iraq’s history.