Iraqi forces stormed Mosul airport, on Thursday, after heavy clashes with ISIS militants that lasted for several days, while sources in the field confirmed the continuation of the violent clashes with ISIS inside the airport, which led to the killing of four Iraqi soldiers and three others wounded.
Iraqi forces have launched an attack on the airport, on Thursday morning, with the participation of 50,000 military forces, supported by air cover by the international coalition, which pre-empted the attack with massive bombardments, to confuse the ranks of the organization. An officer in the Nineveh operations command said Iraqi forces were able to enter the Mosul airport, and parts of the Ghazlani camp, on the western side of the city of Mosul, after a weak resistance from the organization.
Losing Mosul could spell the end of the Iraqi side of militants' self-styled caliphate in Iraq and Syria, which Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared from the city after sweeping through vast areas of Iraq in 2014.
Iraqi forces hope to use the airport as a launchpad for their campaign to drive the militants from Iraq's second largest city.
"ISIS fled when counter terrorism Humvees reached al-Mamoun. We were afraid and we decided to escape towards the Humvees," said Ahmed Atiya, one of the escaped civilians said.
Federal police and an elite interior ministry unit known as Rapid Response had battled their way into the airport as Islamic State fighters fought back using suicide car bombs, a Reuters correspondent in the area south of Mosul airport said.
Police officers said the militants had also deployed bomb-carrying drones against the Iraqi Counter Terrorism Forces advancing from the southwestern side of the city. "We are attacking ISIS from multiple fronts to distract them and prevent them regrouping," said federal police captain Amir Abdul Kareem, whose units are fighting near Ghozlani military base. "It’s the best way to knock them down quickly."
Western advisers supporting Iraqi forces were seen some 2 km (one mile) away from the frontline to the southwest of Mosul, a Reuters correspondent said.
Iraqi forces last month ousted Islamic State from eastern Mosul and embarked on a new offensive against the militant group in densely-populated western Mosul this week.
The campaign involves a 100,000-strong force of Iraqi troops, Kurdish fighters and Shi'ite militias and has made rapid advances since the start of the year, aided by new tactics and improved coordination.
U.S. special forces in armored vehicles on Thursday positioned near Mosul airport looked on as Iraqi troops advanced and a helicopter strafed suspected Islamic State positions.