Islamic State uses drones to attack Iraqi army in Mosul

In southeastern Mosul, the soldiers of the army’s 9th armored Division continued their fierce clashes with IS militants in the districts of Intisar, Jadidat al-Mufti, al-Salam, Younis al-Sab’awi and Palestine, and have been trying to extend their foothold in the five districts, the JOC said.

It said that about 7,000 people had already returned to their homes, leaving roughly 69,000 still displaced, a lot of them in camps.

The US and its allies began a massive campaign of airstrikes against Daesh targets in and around the northern Iraqi city of Mosul in mid-October, after Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi announced a campaign to liberate the key Daesh stronghold.

The agreement between the Iraqi Kurds and Shi’ite groups was reached at meeting between commanders of Kurdish peshmerga forces deployed in Sinjar, west of Mosul, and Hadi al-Amiri, the leader of the Iranian-backed Badr Organisation. “The only road that is still open is the one between Tal Afar and Mosul”. Most of the extremists’ traditional bastions are on the western side of Mosul, as is the old city, whose narrow streets will be hard to penetrate for the government forces’ armoured vehicles.

Several dozen families from the town also arrived in Mosul, said a city resident, asking not to be identified as Islamic State is punishing by death those caught communicating with the outside world. Most of the fighting in Mosul is taking place in the eastern part of the city – east of the Tigris – where Iraqi special forces are slowly moving toward the city center in the face of stiff IS resistance.

More than 100,000 forces have taken part in the Iraqi-led coalition in the operation to take Mosul, including ethnic and religious minority groups, such as Shia, Kurdish and Christian groups. The strikes targeted an industrial area where Islamic State is thought to be making booby traps and auto bombs.

Militants have steadily retreated into Mosul from outlying areas.

The terrorists are dug in among more than a million civilians as a tactic to hamper airstrikes. They are resisting the advancing troops with suicide auto bombs and sniper and mortar fire.

Coalition spokesman Colonel John Dorrian said: “The Iraqi advance on the south and southeast of the city has started to pick up some steam, which we think is a really great development.

We are now just starting to see the situation in a city that has been closed off for the past two years and the needs are starting to become apparent”, he said.

Medical authorities in Irbil say emergency wards are overwhelmed and they’re struggling to provide the medicine and beds needed. One was crying “My son, my son!”