US-backed Iraqi forces have stormed a key village overlooking Mosul’s airport “and are continuing to clear it” of ISIS fighters, the Iraqi army said Monday, less than 48 hours after an offensive was launched to retake control of the western part of the city.
Iraqi Commander of the Operation General Abdal Amir Yar Allah said in a statement that the federal police and the Interior Ministry’s Rapid Deployment Force were battling ISIS in Albu Saif village, less than 2 kilometers from the airport.
The village is perched on elevated ground and will be of strategic value leading up to the push to take the airport, according to CNN’s Ben Wedeman in Istanbul.
“We’ve long been told by sources inside Mosul that ISIS has sabotaged the airstrip there to prevent its use,” Wedeman said.
“And just to the west of the airport is the Ghazlani army base, which has been used by ISIS in the past and is also one of the offensive’s objectives in the primary stages of the operation,” Wedeman added.
The operation in western Mosul, which began on Sunday morning, comes weeks after Iraqi forces recaptured the eastern half of the city, which is divided by the Tigris River.
On the first day of the new offensive, Iraqi Federal Police forces said they killed 79 ISIS militants, destroyed weapons facilities and regained control of 10 villages.
The offensive is expected to come from south and west of the city — Iraqi forces will not be able to advance west across the river because all five bridges connecting the two halves of Mosul were destroyed by ISIS last month. They had previously been damaged by US-led airstrikes.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi described the operation as a “new dawn” in the liberation of Mosul, ISIS’ last major stronghold in the country.
Toughest battle yet
ISIS seized Mosul in 2014 and it is the militant group’s last major stronghold in the country. The offensive to retake Iraq’s second-largest city began in October with a push by the army, counter-terrorism forces, federal police and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters.
Iraqi commanders say the battle for western Mosul will be the toughest fight yet against ISIS. Over the past two years, the militant group has dedicated much of its defensive preparation to the western part of the city.
The city has warrens of alleys that are impassable by military vehicles, and human rights organizations fear that the use of heavy weaponry in the narrow streets of the old city — where an estimated 650,000 civilians are still trapped — is likely to result in very high human toll.
“When it comes to the old city, which is densely populated, people are very worried about residents being used as human shields,” Belkis Wille, senior Iraq researcher for Human Rights Watch, told CNN.
Food shortage
Wille said there are concerns that it might take a long time for humanitarian aid to get to these areas.
“Cooking fuel, fuel for generators, basic food, clean water is almost non-existent. We’ve begun to hear reports of people dying of malnutrition. The question is how long will they have to wait before they can flee,” Wille said.
Damian Rance, UNOCHA communication officer, told CNN that while there are no confirmed cases of children dying from malnutrition, she warned that “many commodities are in short supply in western Mosul, including food, given that major commercial supply routes into the city have been cut since early November.”
