Mosul government forces wrest second bridge over the Tigris
Control of al-Hurriya bridge snatched from the Islamic State. The heaviest fighting since the offensive for the recapture of the western sector. Refugee emergency worsens in recent days at least 45 thousand people have fled their homes.
Baghdad (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The Iraqi government forces have taken control of al-Hurriya (Freedom) Bridge, the second on the Tigris river to be wrested from the jihadists of the Islamic State barricaded since the offensive in the second most important city of the country .
Over the weekend the Baghdad army and Kurdish militias launched a new military operation in the western sector of Mosul; the eastern part is, in the hands of the government since January after weeks of intense fighting.
All five bridges over the Tigris River, connecting the two areas of the city, were damaged by air coalition raid. However, the capture of the second bridge, better known as bridge-Jamhuriya, will provide a base for government forces.
The fighters had struck the bridges with the goal of limiting the Islamic State’s ability to maneuver and move and the ability to supply the fighting groups or strengthen their positions in the eastern sector.
Mosul, the metropolis of the north of Iraq, is the last Daesh stronghold [Arabic acronym for the Islamic State, IS] in Iraq.
Yesterday, an Iraqi army officer said that troops were involved in the heaviest fighting since the offensive to recapture the area west of Mosul, two weeks ago. The old city is home to the great mosque of al-Nuri, where the IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed the creation of the "Caliphate" in July 2014.
Last month, the government had managed to oust the Daesh militia from the area east of Mosul, to the right of the Tigris, after months of intense fighting. The offensive began on 17 October last year and it has taken nearly five months to defeat the jihadi resistance in the area.
UN sources report that half of recorded victims are civilians. Since October 1096 people have been killed, nearly 700 wounded in the plain of Nineveh. Meanwhile, activists and humanitarian associations are dramatically appealing for the welfare of the civilian population, involved in the fighting. According to reports from the International Organization for Migration, at least 45 thousand civilians have fled their homes because of the battle for Mosul.
The situation is of extreme emergency and NGOs can barely cope with the continual arrivals in the refugee camps. Before the start of the assault 750 thousand people lived in the western sector of the metropolis.
On February 28 alone more than 17 thousand people arrived from Mosul west; a further 13 thousand fled March 3. To date, as a result of the offensive, 200 thousand people are displaced from the city. Some have already gone back to their homes in the eastern sector.
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21/03/2017 09:31
23/02/2017 09:49
