Iraqi forces backed by a U.S.-led air coalition targeted
Islamic State defenses on the eastern edge of Mosul with artillery
fire and air strikes on Tuesday, a day after fighting for the first
time inside the city.
Blackish grey smoke hung in the air east of the Islamists'
stronghold and the regular sound of outgoing artillery fire could
be heard, said a Reuters reporter near Bazwaia, about five km
(three miles) east of Mosul.
Explosions could be heard further east.
"We are currently fighting battles on the eastern outskirts of
Mosul," Lieutenant-General Abdul Wahab al-Saidi of the elite
Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) said.
"The pressure is on all sides of the city to facilitate entry to
the city center."
Two weeks after Iraqi forces, backed by extensive U.S.-led
ground and air support, launched their campaign to retake Mosul
from Islamic State, they have cleared scores of villages and towns
on the Nineveh plain east of the city and are advancing along the
Tigris river from the south.
But fighting inside the city itself, the jihadists' last big
bastion in Iraq and still home to 1.5 million residents, could take
months.
The offensive, involving regular army forces, elite counter
terrorism units, federal police, Kurdish peshmerga fighters and
Shi'ite militias, is the most complex since the 2003 U.S.-led
invasion which toppled Saddam Hussein.
Commanders have warned the fighting could last for months.
In Bazwaia, CTS guards told Reuters that a suicide car bomber
tried to attack their position early on Tuesday, but they halted it
with machine gun fire. Rubble and parts of the attacker's body
could still be seen by a nearby berm.
As well as the suicide attacks, the Islamic State militants have
slowed the army's advance with snipers, mortar fire, roadside bombs
and booby traps inside abandoned buildings.
They have also displaced thousands of civilians from villages
and forced them to walk alongside retreating fighters toward Mosul,
using them as "human shields", U.N. officials and villagers have
said.
Mosul is many times bigger than any other city controlled by
Islamic State in either Iraq or Syria. Its recapture would mark the
end of the Iraqi wing of the caliphate which it declared in parts
of both countries two years ago although the hardline Sunni
militants have recovered from previous setbacks in Iraq.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Monday that Iraqi forces
were trying to close off all escape routes for the several thousand
Islamic State fighters inside Mosul.
Iraqi army enters Mosul TV station building, elite unit
commander says
Islamic State kills 40 near Mosul, tries to move 25,000 to use
as shields, U.N. says
"God willing, we will chop off the snake's head," Abadi, wearing
military fatigues, told state television. "They have no escape,
they either die or surrender."
The United Nations has said the Mosul offensive could trigger a
humanitarian crisis and a possible refugee exodus if the civilians
inside in Mosul seek to escape, with up to 1 million people fleeing
in a worst-case scenario.
The International Organisation for Migration said that so far
nearly 18,000 people had been displaced since the start of the
campaign on Oct. 17, excluding those forced back into Mosul by the
retreating jihadists.
In Bazwaia, recaptured by Iraqi troops a day earlier, about a
dozen civilians could be seen coming out of the village, waving
white flags and bringing with them their livestock -- around 200
sheep and a few cows and donkeys.
Saidi, the CTS officer, said 500 civilians had already been
moved from Bazwaia to a camp for displaced people further away from
the front line.
"We expect to encounter more civilians as we push through the
city," he said.