Iraqi troops push into IS-held villages north of Mosul
MOSUL, Iraq (AP) — The Iraqi army, buoyed by their victory this month in liberating the eastern half of Mosul from Islamic State militants, is now pushing into IS-held villages north of the city, an Iraqi officer overseeing the operation said Thursday.
Lt. Col. Diya Lafta said troops from his 9th Division began advancing toward two villages just north of Mosul in the morning and "after a few hours they were liberated" from IS militants.
By afternoon, the village of Shereikhan had been largely freed of IS but fighting continued in the villages beyond, according to Associated Press reporters at the scene.
Thursday's military operation forced hundreds of civilians to flee. Families escaping the clashes on foot clogged the road leading into Mosul as a cloud of smoke from an IS suicide bombing rose above the horizon.
According to one fleeing resident, who asked to only be identified by his nickname Abu Sajjad for fears for his own safety, said IS fighters still firmly controll a number of other villages along Mosul's northern edge.
The push came after Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi earlier this week declared Mosul's eastern half to be completely free of IS.
Iraqi forces launched the massive operation to retake Mosul in October. A U.S.-led coalition and Iraq's own air force have been carrying out airstrikes in support of the military offensive but the troops' advance has been painstakingly slow, in part to spare the lives of civilians trapped by the fighting and also because of heavy IS resistance.
In a statement Tuesday, al-Abadi hailed the "unmatched heroism of all security forces factions" and public support for the operation.
IS still firmly controls Mosul's west, where the next phase of the fighting is expected to be much more difficult. The U.N. estimates that some 750,000 civilians are trapped in Mosul's western sector under IS rule.
Mosul — Iraq's second-largest city and the Islamic State group's last urban stronghold in the country — fell to IS in the summer of 2014, when the militant group captures large swaths of northern and western Iraq.
