Iraqi troops face stiff resistance from IS in eastern Mosul

Iraqi special forces say heavy fighting has broken out in Mosul’s eastern Tahrir neighborhood, where a suicide vehicle bomber set off explosives that disabled an Abrams tank belonging to the Iraqi army.

Lying on his side on a cot, Hassan frantically asked passing medics about his infant son Jassem, who was being treated nearby for wounds to his eyes.

The heavy presence of civilians in Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, has forced the government to slow its campaign which has almost surrounded the metropolis but so far only breached Daesh’s defences from the eastern side. We don’t have weapons, and we have our children with us.

The IS (Daesh) video reportedly shows scores of violent scenes like beheadings, corpses and missiles in the Middle East and then shows a shot of Melbourne city, particularly the airport, airplanes and the church.

Local witnesses said the massacre occurred at the end of October, when the Islamic State killed the policemen who were being held as prisoners.

An elite army unit, the Counter Terrorism Service, breached the city’s eastern limits for the first time two weeks ago. Jubouri agreed, but noted that it is very hard to use airstrikes, tank rounds or indeed any weapons against ISIS inside Mosul, for fear of hitting civilians. Ground down by years of what is essentially a siege and under total ISIS control, Shwaily couldn’t see that they would have the resources to fight back. “They wanted us to come but we didn’t want to because we don’t know how to study in their language, the language of violence”.

Children born under Islamic State rule in Mosul do not have the legal documents needed to prove they are Iraqi citizens.

“Both of these effects are significantly enhanced when they occur in confined spaces, which is why they are particularly lethal against tunnels and bunker complexes, ” he said.

Human Rights Watch issued a statement on Thursday that included accounts by residents of the Hamam al-Alil area south of Mosul suggesting that a mass grave found there contains the bodies of former police killed by IS.

Security forces also launched an offensive in Mosul’s eastern district of al-Moharebin and were reported to be capturing it within few hours.

The 108-truck convoy is carrying some $6 million worth of humanitarian aid, Safak Lostar, the Turkish Red Crescent’s coordinator in Iraq said.

Iraqi troops entered Nimrud on Sunday in what was the most significant gain in several days for government forces.

Zahra resident Alaa Youssef, 47, said civilians in Mosul had an obligation to inform the military about Islamic State fighters who had hidden inside houses or shaved their beards and changed their clothing to blend in with civilians.