Nearly 3 years after Da'ish took the city... #Iraq's flag has been raised above #Mosul's government buildings

[tigergorzow]

Video: Iraqi forces storm Mosque of ISIS leader in Mosul

March 09 2017 02:00 PM

ISIS leader

Iraqi security forces stormed on Thursday "Al-Jami' Al-Nuri"  mosque and its "Manaret Al-Hadbaa" or (The humped minaret) in the right bank of Mosul.

The mosque is one of the most significant historical landmark of Mosul city in which leader of ISIS terrorist group Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi recited his first speech.  

Iraqi counter-terrorism forces on Thursday liberated al-Mo'almeen and al-Saylo neighborhoods in the right bank of Mosul.

Security forces are currently stationed some 2 kilometers close to Nouri al-Kabeir Mosque, which has a famous minaret called Manaret al-Hadbaa, in which ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi used to deliver his speeches to his followers and ISIS militants

http://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/story/7917/Video-Iraqi-forces-storm-Mosque-of-ISIS-leader-in-Mosul

[tigergorzow]

Mosul University to open after three years of closure

March 09 2017 02:12 PM

Mosul University

After a series of meetings and direct calls, Mosul University President Obay al-Dewachi has approved to reopen Mosul University for students whose areas have recently been liberated, Mosul University's Students Union Chief Ahmed al-Rashidi told The Baghdad Post.
 

Al-Rashidi asserted that the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research has issued an approval to resume classes in Mosul University as the president has presented the appeal a month ago.
 

The new academic year for all colleges in the recently liberated areas will begin next Saturday in the alternate location of the University at Bartella humanitarian studies faculties' complex, according to al-Rashidi.
 

Medicine, Engineering and scientific colleges will announce their alternative locations in the next few days, he asserted.
 

Colleges will be distributed in Bertella buildings due to its relevant safety and its distant location from the ongoing clashes, al-Rashidi said noting that classes will be regular for only three days a week with concentrated hours at morning and night courses.
 

Going back to use Mosul University building in the left bank of Mosul will be gradual depending on the security situation and the reconstruction of the damaged building of the university premises and equipment, al-Rashidi added.
 

Mosul University in one of the oldest universities in Iraq, it was established in 1967 and had its buildings burned and destroyed by ISIS terrorists during their reign on the city.

http://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/story/7919/Mosul-University-to-open-after-three-years-of-closure

[tigergorzow]

ISIS threatens launching suicide attacks at Kirkuk camps

March 09 2017 02:33 PM

ISIS terrorists

Security forces in Kirkuk have stepped up security measures after receiving information about possible suicide attacks to be launched by ISIS in the displacement camps.

Security forces received a tip-off about ISIS' plan to launch suicide attacks inside the camps, a security source said on Thursday.

"Our forces are ready for all missions, and we are also ready to face all risks," police chief of Kirkuk neighborhoods Brigadier-General Sarhad Kader, said in a press statement.

Police chief in Lilan district Kawa Peruez pledged to continue missions to protect civilians and displaced people, stressing that security forces are on high alert to avoid sabotage acts.

In Kirkuk, there are 660,000 displaced families distributed in five camps operated by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and Iraq's Ministry of Migration and Displacement.

http://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/story/7921/ISIS-threatens-launching-suicide-attacks-at-Kirkuk-camps

[tigergorzow]

9th Armored Division displaces 160 families from Badush prison vicinity

March 09 2017 03:03 PM

Displaced people from Mosul

Joint forces from the Iraqi Army's 9^th Division and al-Abbas militia have displaced 160 families from Badush prison vicinity in western Mosul.

Most of ISIS leaders' families have escaped Badush area into al-Kask district and nearby farms in northwestern Mosul on Friday, a source told Baghdad Post.

The remaining local ISIS militants stayed in Badush, the source asserted.

Mosul has fallen since 2014 under ISIS' reign of terror, efforts to retake the city from the group by Iraqi Army, Iranian-backed militias and US-led Coalition in October 2016.

Mosul civilians have suffered heavy losses both from ISIS terrorists, security forces and its supporting sectarian militias who systematically pillaged, ransacked and displaced the city's civilians.

http://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/story/7924/9th-Armored-Division-displaces-160-families-from-Badush-prison-vicinity

[tigergorzow]

Hundreds of civilians flee al-Huwaija district as shelling continues

March 09 2017 03:07 PM

Iraqi civilians

Al-Huwaija district in southwestern Kirkuk on Wednesday evening witnessed a wave of exodus as Iraqi forces and US-led coalition warplanes continued to shell the district and its surroundings, a press source told The Baghdad Post.

In statements, the source said that most of displaced people are women, children and the elderly people. They are suffering a lack of food and water due to the siege that has been imposed by Iraqi security forces on the district for three years.

The source explained that the displaced people are living in a dire situation after they were forced to leave their homes to shelter houses in displacement camps on the out skirts of Kirkuk.

Up to 500 hundred civilians left their homes and walked through Maktab Khaled road and al-Dibs district amid low weather temperatures to reach the camps despite the fact that some of them were very sick.

Iraqi government has imposed a tight siege on al-Huwaija district and its surrounding areas in southwestern Kirkuk for three years.

http://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/story/7925/Hundreds-of-civilians-flee-al-Huwaija-district-as-shelling-continues

[tigergorzow]

Pictured: Iraqi forces recapture power station of Badush district

March 09 2017 05:03 PM

Badush power station

 

Iraqi counter terrorism service on Thursday recaptured Badush power station in southern Mosul city, a well-informed source told the Baghdad Post.



ISIS terrorists  retreated from the station buildings before it was fully liberated by Iraqi forces, the source , who asked not to be identified, explained.

Iraqi security forces cordoned off al-Mithaq  district in Mosul's right bank in order to prevent ISIS terrorist from fleeing to other parts of the city

http://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/story/7930/Pictured-Iraqi-forces-recapture-power-station-of-Badush-district

[tigergorzow]

30 ISIS female recruits arrested in Mosul

March 09 2017 06:28 PM

ISIS female recruits arrested

Security forces on Thursday arrested 30 ISIS female recruits of different nationalities in Mosul.

The ISIS terrorists were arrested after the forces raided a rest house in Mosul, a security source said.

The arrestees bear Syrian, Iraqi, Russian, Chinese and Canadian nationalities, he added, saying they were stripped of weapons and taken to police facilities.

http://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/story/7932/30-ISIS-female-recruits-arrested-in-Mosul

[tigergorzow]

Prophet Sheth district in Mosul right banks completely liberated

March 09 2017 06:39 PM

Prophet Sheth district freed

Iraqi security forces have completely liberated Prophet Sheth district in Mosul right bank, sources said Thursday.

Also, Federal Police Units declared the district 'is completely free'.

The district is a strategic part in Mosul.

Iraq's prime minister announced on February 19 the launch of a military assault aimed at taking western Mosul from the ISIS terror group.

http://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/story/7933/Prophet-Sheth-district-in-Mosul-right-banks-completely-liberated

[tigergorzow]

Female ISIS recruit received £35 per month to lash 'immodest women'

March 09 2017 08:00 PM

ISIS female recruiter paid for torturing women

A 26-year-old female Isis member, now in prison in Iraqi Kurdistan, has revealed she was paid £35 per month to lash women deemed immodest with ropes and sticks in the city of Mosul, International Business Times said.
 

Yass Khathr, who lived in Iraq's second city all her life, told the Times that she punished roughly 50 women a week, beating them for crimes against the so-called caliphate that ranged from smoking, reading banned books or showing their ankles beneath their niqabs.
 

"I took the job because I needed the money," she told the newspaper. In return for meting out Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi's justice Khathr was paid 50,000 Iraqi dinars (£35).
 

Unlike men who were regularly beaten in public, their punishments exhibited in grisly Isis propaganda, women were not whipped in public.
 

As Iraqi forces, backed by the United States, push further into ISIS' remaining territory in the fifth month of their assault on the city, more is being learned about life under the extremist militant group.
 

Khathr, now in prison with other former recruits of the ISIS, told the Times she greatly regretted the role she had played during Isis' two-year rule.
 

She said she had joined the radical group despite the protestation of her family. Now she fears they would not accept her were she released. "I will be shunned by family, my community ... I can never go back home," she was quoted as saying.
 

The female Isis enforcer is sister to a dead jihadi, her husband is now also in prison. Khathr was intercepted by Kurdish fighters as she fled fighting in Mosul in the second month of the assault of the Isis-held city.

http://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/story/7936/Female-ISIS-recruit-received-35-per-month-to-lash-immodest-women

[tigergorzow]

Iraqi Forces Recapture Two Villages West of Mosul

 

Basnews English

09/03/2017 - 22:42

Iraq

 

MOSUL — The Iraqi government forces managed on Thursday to recapture two more villages from the Islamic State (IS) in western Mosul, north of Iraq, said the commander of the campaign.

Lieutenant General Abdul Ameer Rasheed Yarallah, commander of Mosul operation, confirmed the gains and revealed that Baitar and Agilat villages are the liberated villages where now the Iraqi flags fly on most of the houses.

The territorial gain is part of the ongoing Mosul assault which the Iraqi government launched on October 17th last year.

After the full liberation of eastern neighborhoods of Mosul, and clearing the area from IS presence, the army crossed the Tigris river into the western part of the city where now fierce clashes are ongoing.

http://www.basnews.com/index.php/en/news/iraq/335429

[tigergorzow]

Iraqi forces recapture Mualmeen and Silo neighborhoods in western Mosul

 

by Loaa Adel Mar 9, 2017, 2:57 pm

Iraqi security forces. File photo.

 

Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Commander of We Are Coming, Nineveh Operations, Lieutenant General Abdel Amir Yarallah, announced on Thursday liberating the neighborhoods of al-Mualmeen and al-Silo, in the western side of Mosul.

Yarallah said in a press statement, “Troops of the Counter-Terrorism Service liberated the neighborhoods of al-Mualmeen and al-Silo, as well as raising Iraqi flag over their buildings.”

Nineveh Province is witnessing extensive military operations, after Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced launching an offensive to liberate the western side of the city of Mosul, in addition to capturing the last stronghold of the Islamic State in the city.

http://www.iraqinews.com/iraq-war/iraqi-forces-recapture-mualmeen-silo-neighborhoods-western-mosul/

Edited March 9, 2017 by tigergorzow

[tigergorzow]

Previous

Next

 

Mosul Eye عين الموصل‏ @MosulEye 11h11 hours ago

 

leaflets were dropped on Mosul today telling ISIL fighters how to surrender: Drop your weapon, hands up, show clear intent to surrender.

pic.twitter.com/ghoMYLcCkR

https://twitter.com/MosulEye?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author

[tigergorzow]

Iraqi Army Aims to Oust IS from Western Mosul in a Month

Basnews English

10/03/2017 - 01:22

Iraq

 

MOSUL — Iraqi forces aim to defeat and oust Islamic State (IS) militants in Mosul within one month, said the head of the elite Counter Terrorism Service on Thursday.

"Despite the tough fighting... we are moving ahead in persistence to finish the battle for the western side within a month," Lieutenant General Talib Shaghati told Reuters.

The Iraqi government forces, backed by the US-led coalition airpower, are currently advancing into the western neighborhoods of Mosul, a major city in northern Iraq where was once considered the extremis group’s most strategic stronghold in Iraq.

Despite making rapid territorial grounds, the Iraqi troops are facing fierce resistance by IS insurgents who struggle to maintain control over the densely-populated western Mosul.

Mosul operation was launched on October 17th last year. After more than three months, the entire eastern neighborhoods of the city were liberated. 

Earlier in February, the Iraqi troops launched a new phase of the assault, aiming at western bank of Tigris river which crosses through the center of Mosul.

http://www.basnews.com/index.php/en/news/iraq/335443

[tigergorzow]

 🇮🇶Iraq Live Update‏ @IraqLiveUpdate 13h13 hours ago

Hashd: Iraqi forces complete a 'full circle' around #Mosul. Daesh terrorists will not escape. #Iraq

 

pic.twitter.com/GyDmWMXWcw

https://twitter.com/IraqLiveUpdate

[tigergorzow]

Previous

Next

 

 🇮🇶Iraq Live Update‏ @IraqLiveUpdate 13h13 hours ago

 

Badosh Cement Factory turned into a 'Bomb Factory' by Daesh is secured by Iraqi forces #Mosul #Iraq pic.twitter.com/N0jQ7XFc2G

https://twitter.com/IraqLiveUpdate

[tigergorzow]

Previous

Next

 

 🇮🇶Iraq Live Update‏ @IraqLiveUpdate 13h13 hours ago

 

Cement factory in Badosh set ablaze by Daesh terrorists before fleeing #Mosul #Iraq

pic.twitter.com/YhKPopJlzB

https://twitter.com/IraqLiveUpdate

[tigergorzow]

BREAKING: Iraqi Army liberates hotel in downtown Mosul amid daring night raid

By

Chris Tomson

-

10/03/2017

 

BEIRUT, LEBANON (2:05 A.M.) – Under the cover of darkness, a SWAT team of the Iraqi Armed Forces infiltrated the Palestine Hotel in the southern sector of the Old City neighborhood and neutralized a group ISIS militants, some of whom were sleeping.

The night-time operation was conducted around midnight by seasoned units of the Rapid Response Division. Palestine Hotel, sometimes called Assyria Hotel, overlooks the Tigris River.

Earlier today, Iraqi troops also took control of two districts in western Mosul despite a daily wave of ISIS suicide bombers lunging themselves at the advancing government forces.

Around 85% of Mosul has been liberated so far; nevertheless, an estimated 2,000 jihadists are still bogged down in the northwestern part of the city and are yet to surrender themselves.

 

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/breaking-iraqi-army-liberates-hotel-downtown-mosul-amid-daring-night-raid/

[tigergorzow]

Iraq aims to drive Islamic State from west Mosul within a month

 

by Loaa Adel Mar 9, 2017, 7:47 pm

 

Iraqi rapid response members prepare to cross the route to avoid being hit by Islamic State snipers in western Mosul, Iraq March 9, 2017. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra

 

(Reuters) Iraqi forces aim to dislodge Islamic State militants from west Mosul within a month, despite gruelling urban combat in densely populated terrain, the head of the elite Counter Terrorism Service told Reuters on Thursday.

As Iraqi forces advance deeper into west Mosul, they are facing increasingly stiff resistance from Islamic State militants using suicide car bombs and snipers to defend their last major stronghold in Iraq.

Their operation to retake the eastern bank of the city, launched in mid-October with support from a U.S.-led coalition, took more than three months. The offensive to recapture west Mosul got underway less than three weeks ago.

“Despite the tough fighting… we are moving ahead in persistence to finish the battle for the western side within a month,” Lieutenant General Talib Shaghati told Reuters at a conference in Sulaimaniya.

The few thousand militants still fighting in west Mosul are overwhelmingly outnumbered by a 100,000-strong array of Iraqi forces, but their ruthless tactics east of the Tigris river late last year enabled them to hold out much longer than the government’s initial optimistic predictions.

Mosul is by far the largest city which Islamic State has held in its cross-border, self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria. It has been losing ground in both countries, with three separate forces, backed by the United States, Turkey and Russia, advancing on its Syrian stronghold of Raqqa.

In Mosul, CTS forces recaptured the Moalimin and Silo districts on Thursday, according to the commander of the campaign Lieutenant General Abdul Ameer Rasheed Yarallah.

Inside the city, CTS are fighting alongside the Federal Police and the elite interior ministry Rapid Response force, which earlier this week recaptured the provincial government headquarters and the Mosul museum.

A federal police colonel said on Thursday there were skirmishes close to the museum, where the militants filmed themselves destroying priceless statues and sculptures in 2015.

“The frontline is just beyond it,” said Lieutenant Colonel Hammeed Habib of the Rapid Response forces. “There are snipers stationed in tall hotel buildings on a road beyond that line”.

The Iraqi army’s ninth division and Shi’ite paramilitary forces said on Wednesday they had cut the main road between the city and the Islamic State stronghold of Tal Afar to the west, tightening a noose around the city.

There is little doubt Iraqi forces will eventually prevail over the militants, who are both outnumbered and overpowered, but even if it loses Mosul, Islamic State is expected to revert to their insurgent tactics of old.

On Wednesday, bomb blasts ripped through a wedding party near Tikrit, which was recaptured by Iraqi forces in 2015, killing more than 20 people.

The jihadist group has lost most of the cities it captured in northern and western Iraq in 2014 and 2015. In Syria, U.S.-backed Syrian forces said on Thursday they expected to reach the outskirts of Islamic State-held Raqqa city in a few weeks.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance including the Kurdish YPG militia, is the main U.S. partner in the war against Islamic State in Syria. The U.S.-led coalition said on Thursday a Marines unit had deployed to help the campaign.

In Mosul, civilians are fleeing in greater number as the fighting approaches the densely populated old city, causing alarm that the camps for displaced people are nearly full .

About 40,000 people have fled the fighting and hardship in the past 10 days, bringing the total number of people displaced from Mosul since campaign started to more than 215,000, according to United Nations estimates.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi called on the population to stay in their homes, at the same time urging humanitarian organisations and government agencies to step up efforts to help the tens of thousands who fled.

It was from the Mosul old city’s grand al-Nuri Mosque that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared his “caliphate” nearly three years go.

Baghdadi, an Iraqi whose real name is Ibrahim al-Samarrai, has left operational commanders to fight in the city, moving in a remote, mostly desert stretch, trying to evade surveillance, according to U.S. and Iraqi official.

http://www.iraqinews.com/iraq-war/iraq-aims-drive-islamic-state-west-mosul-within-month/

Edited March 10, 2017 by tigergorzow

[tigergorzow]

By Holly Williams CBS News March 9, 2017, 7:24 PM

Civilians flee Mosul as Iraqi forces smash remaining ISIS fighters (Video in link)

MOSUL, Iraq -- This is a part of the world so ancient it’s mentioned in the Bible. Now it’s been brought to its knees.

Mosul is being shattered as Iraqi forces pound fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in the long-awaited campaign to take back the city. ISIS forces captured Mosul in 2014.

On Thursday, residents of this once-wealthy city fled with their bundles of possessions, sometimes, with just the clothes on their backs.

In the Al-Dawasa neighborhood about 150 yards from the front line, Muhammed Yunus had made it to to safety with his young family. He said ISIS fighters are hiding in people’s homes. Four had occupied his house, he said, before it was struck by a mortar. 

As the Iraqis claw back one street at a time, ISIS has smashed through the walls of homes in order to move from house to house without being detected from the sky.

Iraqi forces claimed they’d recaptured Mosul’s main government building on Tuesday. But on Thursday, reporters weren’t allowed within a block of it. Brigadier General Shakar Al Khafaji said ISIS is still sniping at his forces, contesting every inch of territory even as the fighters retreat.

When ISIS is finally pushed out of Mosul -- which could take weeks -- scars will remain. 

Hassan Ali fled the city with his wife Hala and five children, but said they had to leave behind the body of his father, who died a week ago.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/civilians-flee-mosul-as-iraqi-forces-smash-remaining-isis-fighters/

[tigergorzow]

ISIS terrorists force western Mosul civilians out of their homes

March 10 2017 10:40 AM

ISIS terrorists

ISIS terrorists have evacuated civilians from al-A'amel and Mosul al-Jadedah neighborhoods and told them to head for al-Refaei and 17 Tamouz neighborhoods, local sources said on Friday.
 

The sources asserted that ISIS terrorists demolished houses' walls to create passages between them to facilitate their movement in the area.
 

Terrorists also deployed snipers atop the high building roofs to snipe security forces with ease, according to the sources.
 

Security forces have mobilized on the outskirts of the western neighborhoods of the right bank of Mosul to storm them in next few hours.

http://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/story/7942/ISIS-terrorists-force-western-Mosul-civilians-out-of-their-homes

[tigergorzow]

Citizens of Mosul's left bank suffer services' shortage

March 10 2017 11:14 AM

Left bank of Mosul residents

Citizens from the left bank of Mosul complained about the lack of services after more than a month of liberating their areas.
 

Civil defense units haven't been back in the liberated parts of Mosul, according to the citizens.
 

Civilians form the city have pleaded the local government to create special teams to help the area's residents and bring back civil defense services especially fire fighters teams.
 

The left bank of Mosul suffered from several fires in the last week due to civilians' use of the heavy black fuel in cooking and warming.

http://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/story/7945/Citizens-of-Mosul-s-left-bank-suffer-services-shortage

[tigergorzow]

Security forces enter Khaled Ibn Al Waleed Street in central Mosul

March 10 2017 11:30 AM

New districts liberated in Mosul

Federal Police Units have entered Khalid street in central Mosul, reports said. Also, counter-terror forces are launching a raid on Al-Amel district.

US-backed Iraqi forces have launched a large-scale military operation to dislodge (ISIS) militants from the western half of Mosul city, which has been in the hands of extremists since 2014.
 

On February 19, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the start of the operation on state TV, saying government forces were moving to "liberate the people of Mosul from Daesh oppression and terrorism forever", using the Arabic acronym for IS.

http://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/story/7946/Security-forces-enter-Khaled-Ibn-Al-Waleed-Street-in-central-Mosul

[tigergorzow]

Nineveh Police arrest 2,000 suspects in left bank of Mosul

March 10 2017 11:48 AM

Nineveh Police chief Brig. Wathiq al-Himdani

Police forces with the support of SWAT forces apprehended more than 2,000 suspects and criminals in the liberated areas of the left bank of Mosul Nineveh Police chief Brig. Wathiq al-Himdani said.
 

Courts and police stations are now operational as 12 police stations are back to work; efforts to restore six more are on the way, six emergency units are covering the areas on the area, and IMIS offices reopened, al-Himdani asserted.

http://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/story/7947/Nineveh-Police-arrest-2-000-suspects-in-left-bank-of-Mosul

[tigergorzow]

Three top ISIS leaders killed in Mosul right bank

March 10 2017 12:09 PM

Top leaders killed in Mosul

Three top ISIS leaders hailing from different nationalities were killed on Friday in Mosul right bank, Military Intelligence Directorate stated.
 

Those terrorists are the expert called Abu-Aish, a Tajikistani element who is considered one of the terror group's top booby trappers.
 

He also devised loading missiles into drones to bomb different targets.
 

The second leader is Abu-Mohammed Al-Russi. He is a Russian aircraft engineer.  
 

And the third one among the ISIS dead leaders is Abu-Omar Al-Faransi. He is an expert on engines of Tunisian origins.
 

US-backed Iraqi forces have launched a large-scale military operation to dislodge (ISIS) militants from the western half of Mosul city, which has been in the hands of extremists since 2014.

http://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/story/7948/Three-top-ISIS-leaders-killed-in-Mosul-right-bank

[tigergorzow]

Security forces liberate Bab Jadid district in central Mosul

March 10 2017 01:04 PM

New districts liberated in Mosul

Federal Police Units have liberated Bab Jadid district in central Mosul, a security source said Friday.

US-backed Iraqi forces have launched a large-scale military operation to dislodge (ISIS) militants from the western half of Mosul city, which has been in the hands of extremists since 2014.

On February 19, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the start of the operation on state TV, saying government forces were moving to "liberate the people of Mosul from Daesh oppression and terrorism forever", using the Arabic acronym for IS.

http://www.thebaghdadpost.com/en/story/7951/Security-forces-liberate-Bab-Jadid-district-in-central-Mosul