The Ghazlani military camp on the outskirts of southwestern Mosul has been liberated from ISIS militants, an Iraqi military spokesman told CNN.
Iraqi flags are now flying atop the buildings of the strategic military base located near the city’s airport, Colonel Mohamad Bayzani of the Joint Operations Command said, quoting a statement.
According to Bayzani, there were many ISIS casualties in the battle, and a lot of the militant group’s weaponry was destroyed. The statement was issued on behalf of the Commander of Iraqi Forces in Ninevah, General Abdul Amir Rasheed Yarallah.
Iraqi forces are still working to fully secure all areas around the airport and the Ghazlani camp complexes.
Full control
Overnight Thursday Iraqi forces regained control of the airport in Mosul, a key early objective in the second phase of the months long operation to push ISIS militants from the key Iraqi city.
The airport — largely destroyed by ISIS forces — is now fully under Iraqi Federal Police control, said Col. Abdel Amir Mohamed, commander of the rapid response unit of the Federal Police.
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 was “reasonably well-secured.”
“It’s been a really good day,” said Jones, speaking from Baghdad on Thursday. “The Iraqis are on the airfield. It looks reasonably well-secured.”
“We should just be a little bit patient. It will really be for the Iraqis to say for certain once they’re confident they’re holding it,” he added.
Iraqi forces launched a new bid to retake the western parts of the city on Sunday after declaring in late January that the east had been liberated.
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. ISIS has held the airport since 2014 and has largely destroyed its infrastructure.
Sources have told CNN in recent months that ISIS has sabotaged the airstrip there to prevent its use.
Forces took the airport in a few hours and appear to be moving swiftly, taking back control of two villages — Yarmouk and Tal al-Rayan — near the airport and the al-Ghazlani camp.
They have also taken control of an ISIS weapons storage warehouse, former ISIS headquarters and the barracks at al-Ghazlani, Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasoul, a spokesperson for the Iraqi operation, told CNN.
But the push to take western Mosul is expected to take some time — the east of the city took more than three months to take from ISIS control.
A city split
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.
Residents of eastern Mosul have written letters of solidarity that the Iraqi Air Force dropped over western neighborhoods on Wednesday.
CNN went aboard an Air Force plane and met two residents of the east who had written some of the letters. One, Ghassan Mohammed Saadoun, said that he had received similar reassuring letters from other Iraqis when the east was being liberated.
He said ISIS had tried to confiscate those letters.
“I have lived that experience and seen these letters and leaflets, but ISIS tried to prevent us from seeing them as much as they can. When that happened, the children of ISIS went out into the streets and collected these letters early in the morning hours so no one could read them,” he said.
One of the letters read: “Do not be afraid of the security forces — they are coming to protect and to liberate you from injustice. Collaborate with them and don’t be afraid of them. They are your sons. We wish you safety and security.”
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.
