Iraqi forces advance deeper into west Mosul, retaking government HQ and museum

MOSUL // Iraqi forces said on Tuesday they had seized the main government offices in Mosul and its famed museum as they made steady progress in their battle to retake the city’s west from extremists, but were facing fierce counterattacks from ISIL.

According to Lt Gen Abdul Amir Rasheed Yar Allah, the troops hoisted an Iraqi flag on the complex of buildings in the Dawasa neighbourhood in the morning, hailing the federal police units who stormed the compound as heroes.

By noon, troops on the ground said the complex had not yet been fully secured and that they were battling a wave of intense ISIL counterattacks.

The advances, which also included the recapture of three neighbourhoods, were announced on the third day of a renewed offensive against ISIL in west Mosul – the largest remaining urban stronghold in the group’s self-declared “caliphate” in 2014.

Supported by the US-led coalition bombing ISIL in Iraq and Syria, Iraqi forces began their push into west Mosul on February 19. The advance slowed during several days of bad weather but was renewed on Sunday.

The latest gains have brought government troops and police closer to Mosul’s densely populated Old City, where hundreds of thousands of civilians are believed to still be trapped under ISIL rule.

Iraq’s Joint Operations Command (JOC) said that federal police and the elite Rapid Response unit had been able to “liberate” the headquarters for the Nineveh provincial government.

They also seized control of the Al Hurriyah bridgehead, it said, in a step towards potentially relinking west Mosul with the city’s east, which government forces seized from the extremists earlier in the offensive. Iraqi forces declared eastern Mosul “fully liberated” in January after officially launching the operation to retake the city in October.

All the bridges crossing the Tigris in Mosul have been damaged or destroyed, and Iraqi forces would either have to repair them or install floating bridges to reconnect the two banks of the river which divides the city.

Security forces had also managed to recapture the Mosul museum, where the extremists destroyed priceless artefacts and released a video of their rampage in February 2015, officers said on Tuesday.

Other sites recaptured from ISIL include Mosul’s central bank building, that the extremists looted along with other banks in 2014, seizing tens of millions of dollars.

The consistent advance – more than two weeks since the new push started to clear Mosul’s western side of ISIL militants – has been a major blow to the extremists who once controlled nearly a third of Iraq.

The JOC announced on Tuesday that Iraqi forces had regained complete control of the west Mosul neighbourhoods of Al Dawasa, Al Danadan and Tal Al Ruman, bringing the total number of recaptured areas to 10.

In Al Danadan, streets were left strewn with rubble and windows blown out of many houses.

“There was mortar rounds falling on us, they fell on the roof and in the courtyard,” said Manhal, a 28-year-old resident.

The recent fighting in west Mosul has forced more than 51,000 people to flee their homes, according to the International Organisation for Migration.

But the number who have fled is still just a fraction of the 750,000 people believed to have stayed on in west Mosul under ISIL rule.

The extremists have been pushed from most of the territory they once seized but remain in control of key bastions including west Mosul and its de facto Syrian capital of Raqqa.

World powers have vowed increased cooperation in tackling the global threat from ISIL, which from its base in Syria and Iraq has organised or inspired a series of deadly attacks in foreign cities.

Talks were taking place on Tuesday between the Turkish, Russian and US military chiefs in the southern Turkish city of Antalya on issues including cooperation in Iraq and Syria.

* Agence France-Presse and Associated Press