Military reinforcements have arrived in the right bank of the Iraqi city of Mousl on Saturday to participate in the liberation of the rest of districts still controlled by the extremist ISIS group. Meanwhile, Iraq’s Federal Police revealed that they managed to control 63 targets and killed 20 leaders of the extremist group during their operations against the strongholds of the extremist group in Mousl.
Federal Police have declared controlling 63 targets and killed 20 Islamic State militants since operations started in February to liberate the western side of Mosul.
“Since beginning of operations in western Mosul, troops were able to evacuate 3,865 families and 260,000 civilians from the hot spots. 3,630 families composed of 22,193 members were returned back to their houses at the liberated regions. 50,000 food baskets were offered to the displaced,” Lt. Gen. Shaker Jawdat, Federal Police chief, said in a statement on Saturday.
“More than 20 IS leaders were killed, while 63 targets were retaken. 274 square kilometers were freed. 350 booby-trapped vehicles were destroyed,” he added. Regarding recent developments in the west of Mosul, Jawdat said, “our troops destroyed a booby-trapped container that was placed by IS to target the troops on al-Thawra district.”
The troops, according to the statement, “invaded the Old City through four axis; from Bab al-Toub from the [Tigris] River side, Bab al-Jadid from Baghdad garage, in Qadhib al-Ban in the west and in al-Thawra district toward al-Zanjili district.”
In related news, informed sources in Baghdad said around 8,000 personnel of Iraqi troops were killed since the operations to liberate Mosul was launched six months ago. The Kuwaiti newspaper of Alaan quoted sources as saying that the total number of victims among Iraqi military and security personnel reached 7,970 since beginning of the offensive in October until last week, the sources added.
The total figure excludes victims of the paramilitary forces of al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Public Mobilization Units), which took part in the battles since late October. Federal Police troops has the biggest share of losses, the sources said. The army’s elite Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) also suffered huge losses. Eastern Mosul was recaptured in January after three months of battles between Iraqi troops, backed by U.S.-led coalition, against IS. A new offensive was launched in February to retake the west.
In the same context, Military troops have gained control on strategic road that was used by Islamic State militants in attacks against Haditha town, western Anbar, a source said on Saturday.
“The 28th brigade combed the region of Makhazin Haditha and took over the strategic road that links between Haditha and T1,” said Sabah Nouri, commander of the second army. “Islamic State militants used that road to launch attacks against Haditha, al-Haqlaniyah and the nearby military units.”
“Two campaigns were launched to comb desert regions in Anbar. The first one was launched by Jazeera Operations Command from two axis toward the south of Kabisa city,” the War Media Cell said in a statement. “The other one, backed by the Iraqi troops and international coalition, was launched in Makhazin Haditha and Houran regions to destroy IS rest houses and stores of weapons.”
“Some regions are still being combed,” the service said adding that Anbar Operations Command launched another campaign, supported by air cover, to comb desert regions toward H2 base.
On Thursday, Jazeera Operations Command launched a military operation to liberate and comb some regions in the north of Haditha Dam lake, 160 KM west of Ramadi city. Haditha city is fully controlled by security forces and tribal fighters, however, IS launches attacks there every now and then. Last week, additional U.S. forces reportedly arrived to a military base in Anbar to take part in the security campaign against IS militants.
On the political side, Iraqi parliamentarian Mohamed Nagy described the position taken by the Iraqi government towards the remarks of Turkey’s Erdogan about Popular Mobilization Forces as weak. He called Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider Abadi for taking strict positions against the statement delivered by the Turkish president.
He added, in a press statement, “We will resume pressuring the Iraqi government until the expel of Turkish troops existed in the Iraqi territories to protect the sovereignty of our country currently violated by Turkey which occupies parties of our territories.” He expressed his support for the Popular Mobilization Forces, saying that he is confident that they will resume fighting until achieving victory against ISIS extremist militias.