Iraqi Prime Minister orders air force strike against Islamic State inside Syria

All of Mosul’s bridges spanning the Tigris River and connecting the western part of the city, still held by ISIL, or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group, with its eastern sector, were disabled by air strikes previous year.

The seizure of al-Bab came as the airfield on the western outskirts of Iraq’s second city fell to Iraqi troops after a brief, but intense, battle.

Backed by airstrikes, the Iraqi army is now said to be fully in control of the airport and a major military installation in the city.

“We are now entering the most risky phase for civilians during the battle of Mosul”. The city is seen as Islamic State’s last key stronghold in Iraq.

The International Rescue Committee warned Friday that this second stage of the Mosul operation could be the “most unsafe phase” for civilians as Iraqi troops seek to secure densely populated areas amid ISIS resistance.

The Pentagon has issued a directive that officials now use the more common term ISIS to refer to the terror group.

The Friday strikes, however, marked the first time the Iraqi air force has acknowledged bombing the neighboring state.

Gen. Joe Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spent much of an hourlong appearance at the Brookings Institution on Thursday avoiding giving specifics about a 30-day review, ordered by Trump, into how the fight against ISIS is being formulated.

ISIS has lost over half of the territory it once controlled in Iraq, but headway against the group has been slower in Syria. Tehran’s Shiite militias could push to replace US forces in the fight for Mosul; or more likely, Iran’s clients could demand that all American forces leave Iraq immediately after the battle.

That is not a view shared by many analysts, however, who believe that the physical layout of the western part of the city – which includes narrow, winding streets – will require in a prolonged, brutal battle to banish IS once and for all. ISIS is the term most known and understood by the American public, and it is what our leadership uses.

According to United Nations figures, about 750,000 civilians are thought to still be in western Mosul, about half of them children.

At the nearby American Qayyara West airfield – long known as Q-West from when it was a much larger USA base several years ago – the 2nd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division has settled in behind acres of new blast walls to protect its Apaches and RQ-7 Shadow surveillance drones, which buzz constantly over Mosul and its surrounding villages.

Hundreds of civilians poured out of Mosul on foot following the advances, but the vast majority of 750,000 estimated to still be in the city’s west remain trapped, and describe deteriorating humanitarian and security conditions. “However, we don’t yet know what civilians in the western side of the city will choose to do”.

The coalition forces have already entered western Mosul from the south and the west.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Friday promised that Iraqi forces would do all they could to keep civilians safe.

Defeat in Mosul would likely deal a hammer blow to Islamic State’s self-styled caliphate in areas it seized in 2014.