Wave of Strikes as IS Puts Up Tough Defense of Mosul

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Iraqi forces advancing on Mosul faced stiff resistance from the Islamic State group on Monday despite the U.S.-led coalition unleashing an unprecedented wave of air strikes to support the week-old offensive.

Federal forces and Kurdish peshmerga fighters were moving forward in several areas, AFP correspondents on various fronts said, but the jihadists were hitting back with shelling, sniper fire, suicide car bombs and booby traps.

IS has also attempted to draw attention away from losses around Mosul with attacks on Iraqi forces elsewhere in the country, the latest coming on Sunday near the Jordanian border.

Following a weekend visit to Iraq by US Secretary of Defence Ashton Carter, American officials said the coalition was providing the most air support yet to the operation.

"One week into Mosul operation, all objectives met thus far, and more coalition air strikes than any other 7-day period of war against ISIL (IS)," Brett McGurk, the top U.S. envoy to the 60-nation coalition, wrote on social media.

"There were 32 strikes with 1,776 munitions delivered against Daesh (IS) targets for the week of October 17-October 23," the spokesman for the coalition, Colonel John Dorrian, told AFP.

He said those strikes had destroyed 136 IS fighting positions, 18 tunnels and 26 car bombs.

The offensive, launched on October 17, aims to retake towns and villages surrounding Mosul before elite troops will breach the city and engage die-hard jihadists in street-to-street fighting.

- 'Good defences' -

On the eastern side of Mosul, federal troops were battling IS on Monday in Qaraqosh, which used to be the largest Christian town in the country.

Army forces entered the town for the third day running but armoured convoys deployed around it were met with shelling from inside, an AFP correspondent reported.

Federal forces also scored gains on the southern front, where they have been making quick progress, taking one village after another as they work their way up the Tigris Valley.

On the northern front, Kurdish peshmerga forces were closing in on the IS-held town of Bashiqa.

Turkey, which has a base in the area, said Sunday it had provided artillery support following a request from the peshmerga.

The presence of Turkish troops on Iraqi soil is deeply unpopular in Baghdad and the Joint Operations Command on Monday vehemently denied any Turkish participation.

But AFP reporters near Bashiqa said artillery fire coming from the Turkish base had been visible on several occasions since the start of operations a week ago.

While an increasingly pragmatic IS has tended in recent months to relinquish some of its positions to avoid taking too many casualties, U.S. officials said the group was mounting a spirited defence of Mosul.

If IS loses Mosul in Iraq, only Raqa in Syria will remain as the last major city under the jihadists' control in either country.

"They have made a very good job of preparing their defences around the city," one U.S. military official told reporters during Carter's visit.

The official said IS' strategy appeared to be to trade "non-necessary space" around Mosul for casualties among federal and Kurdish ranks.

The coalition estimates the number of IS fighters defending Mosul -- the city where IS supremo Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed a "caliphate" two years ago -- at 4,000 to 7,000.

- Calm returns to Kirkuk -

The coalition's top commander, General Stephen Townsend, said Sunday he expected not all the jihadists in Mosul would "fight to the death".

"By targeting the mid-tier leaders, which our special operations forces and air force have done remarkably well, we have caused a lot of confusion" in IS ranks, he said.

"I think it's going to pay off in the coming weeks."

Seeking to distract attention, the jihadists have attempted to hit back with attacks elsewhere in Iraq, including in the remote western town of Rutba on Sunday.

They briefly seized the mayor's office, captured and executed at least five people -- civilians and policemen -- and still controlled two neighbourhoods on Monday, army commanders said.

Two days earlier, IS sleeper cells in Kirkuk joined up with gunmen infiltrating the northern Iraqi city to launch a brazen raid that saw the jihadists attack several government buildings.

The attack sparked clashes that lasted three days as security forces imposed a curfew to hunt down attackers holed up in several buildings across the city.

The provincial governor, Najmeddin Karim, told AFP Monday that the attack was over and life was returning to normal.

He said more than 74 IS militants were killed during the three-day unrest, which left at least 46 other people dead, most of them members of the security forces.

Comments 7
Thumb EagleDawn 24 October 2016, 17:11

Iraqi forces advancing on Mosul faced stiff resistance from the Islamic State group on Monday despite the U.S.-led coalition unleashing an unprecedented wave of air strikes to support the week-old offensive.
U.S. officials said the group was mounting a spirited defence of Mosul.

But the iranian says :

".mowaten.
Every day a new element confirms a deal was reached between the US/saudi and daesh to allow them to relocate from mosul to raqqa."

Thumb justin 24 October 2016, 18:46

lol

18:26مصدر فرنسي: مئات المسلحين المتطرفين وصلوا في الأيام الأخيرة الى الموصل آتين من سوريا.

Thumb .mowaten. 25 October 2016, 03:03

32 strikes killing 180 targets (LOL), and the offensive is advancing on all fronts... doesnt seem to be as stiff a resistance as is claimed by US talking heads. they're putting up a show that's for sure, but not up to what daesh has accustomed us to in other battlefields.

Thumb .mowaten. 25 October 2016, 03:05

the deal you are quoting me on refers to 9000 fighters being relocated from mosul to raqqa, and is being confirmed by many facts on the ground. that doesnt mean the 4000 to 7000 fighters left behind (according to the "coalition") wont put up some sort of fight to make the whole thing credible. poor guys dont even realize they're being sacrificed for a show

Thumb Puppet 25 October 2016, 07:45

All my admiration and respect go to Mr. Mowaten for showing the human side of himself and feeling sorry for the poor guys.

Thumb galaxy 24 October 2016, 21:17

every day mowaten proves he is a sectarian iranian troll.

Thumb chrisrushlau 24 October 2016, 18:27

I'm afraid Russia blew the whistle on that deal and maybe even bombed a convoy of such fighters on its way across the Syrian border. But we cannot forget who formed and runs ISIS, and why. My first thought here was that the US was prepared to "destroy Mosul to save it", but that doesn't seem so likely. One of those AFP guys might blow the whistle on that, compare the US to Putin in Grozny. The rule for the US in Iraq, since I was there in 2004, when an Iraqi Kurd spelled it out for me, is to create a "weakened state". He didn't like that. I think most Iraqis know what's going on here.