Mosul battle resumes after halt, army, coalition pound north and south

Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi army forces and US coalition forces resumed late Friday offensives on Islamic State locations in the north and south of the eastern section of Mosul after days of refit.

Military sources told London-based The New Arab that the army’s 16th and 9th divisions, along with the elite Counter Terrorism Service, were engaging in battles with IS after midnight at the city’s Police Academy in the north and near Ghizlani in the south.

An army colonel deployed at the army’s backline in eastern Mosul, who introduced himself as Walid al-Hayyani, told the newspaper that international coalition fighter jets were contributing to the offensive.

Meanwhile, local sources said the city’s hospital received civilians who died and wounded in the airstrikes, noting that electricity was completely cut from the city.

Iraqi government forces, backed by al-Hashd al-Shaabi and US-led air forces, launched a wide-scale military campaign mid October to retake Mosul, IS’s last major stronghold in Iraq. While government forces fought on the eastern shore of the Tigris River, recapturing almost 40 districts out of nearly 60 since then, al-Hashd al-Shaabi has been fighting the group in the western region, claiming to have isolated IS’s hideouts there from both Syria and Iraq.

As admitted by military media, progress in battles at the easte slowed down over the past week. That is reportedly due to bad weather conditions and the density of the targeted districts.
The situation in Mosul has forced at least 125000 people to flee to refugee camps, with nearly one million still stranded in the battlefield.