IS claims coalition airstrike disables fourth Mosul bridge

The latest development will make it very long and risky for IS if it attempts to move fighters and equipment between Mosul and the Syrian city of Raqqa, the last two bastions of their crumbling “state”.

Mosul is already ringed to the north, south and east by Iraqi government and peshmerga forces.

A United Nations spokesman says that the number of displaced people fleeing the military operation to retake the Iraqi city of Mosul from the Islamic State group has grown to over 68,000.

Earlier, the US-led multinational coalition supporting the offensive bombed another of the bridges over the River Tigris that link eastern and western Mosul.

These are the two main cities of the militant group’s self-styled caliphate in Iraq and Syria.

The IS group also remains in control of the road between Mosul and Tal Afar, Mohandis said.

“Daesh uses drones for surveillance and sometimes it attaches explosives to them and uses to target commanders or headquarters”, he said, using a derogatory name for Islamic State.

The agreement was reached at meeting on Wednesday between commanders of Iraq’s Kurdish Peshmarga forces deployed in Sinjar, west of Mosul, and Hadi al-Amiri, the leader of Badr Organization, Reuters reported.

The bridges were “disabled in order to reduce Da’esh freedom of movement and limit their ability to resupply and reinforce fighters”, said Col. John L. Dorrian, spokesman for the USA mission in the Mosul operation, using another name for ISIS.

“A large truck exploded among them”.

Tal Afar, held by the IS since June 2014, has majority of both Sunni and Shiite Turkoman people, as well as other minorities of Kurds and Arabs.

The airstrike was followed by intense fighting in an eastern Mosul neighborhood where Iraq’s special forces are slowly advancing toward the city center, hampered by suicide vehicle bombings, sniper’s fire and concerns over the safety of civilians still living inside the city.

Around 5,000 soldiers are now in northern Iraq, assisting and advising the Iraqi forces in their fight against the Islamic State.

The statement didn’t say when the air strikes were carried out. Their advance will likely grind on for some time as they contend with IS tactics that have included riddling the city with booby-traps, setting off suicide auto bombs, stationing snipers on rooftops and using civilians as human shields.

Jafari’s remarks will likely be taken as reaffirming Iranian control over military units that are a formal part of the Iraqi armed forces. “We don’t want civilians to be in danger”.

The UN says at least 68,000 people have fled the fighting in Mosul, including some 8,300 over the past four days.

The figure does not include the thousands of people rounded up in villages around Mosul and forced to accompany Islamic State fighters to cover their retreat towards the city as human shields.

On Nov. 16, the paramilitary troops recaptured a strategic airbase near the town of Tal Afar, which also located some 80 km from the border with Syria. In Mosul, likewise, dozens of families have fled the artillery fire and violence for the safety of humanitarian centers set up for displaced civilians.

“They can not flee. They have two choices – give up or die”, he said.

Asked on IRGC’ response to possible violation of JCPOA by US, Jafari said IRGC is a part of Iranian government and would follow and support the decisions made by Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei, the government and the Parliament.