Iraqi Popular Forces Start Military Operation against ISIL South of Mosul

Rasa - The Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) launched a new round of military operation in South of Mosul on Tuesday to capture a strategic district from ISIL terrorist group.

News ID: 429221

Date: 25 April 2017 - 23:46

RNA - The PMU media team announced on Tuesday that they intend to liberate from ISIL the Hilala Hill to the North of Hadar, as well as Ain Sadid and al-Olwani villages in the South, IraqiNews reported.

Pro-Iraqi government troops of al-Hashd al-Shaabi have also received several families fleeing East of Hadar region as operations started to free the region and the surrounding areas from ISIL militants.

The PMU have played a key role in expelling ISIL from the Nineveh countryside, but have not participated in operations to retake the Mosul.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi announced in October 2016, the start of a military operation to recapture Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq which fell to the ISIL since 2014.

The Iraqi defense ministry announced earlier in January that the ISIL terrorist group has lost over 50 percent of its militants in the city of Mosul in Nineveh province as Iraqi troops have managed to recapture the Eastern part of the de facto Capital of the ISIL.

"The intelligence obtained by us indicates that there have been over 6,000 ISIL terrorists in Mosul and around 3,400 of them have been killed in battles with Iraq's joint military forces in the major city of Nineveh province," Iraqi Defense Ministry Spokesman Colonel Laith al-Naimi said.

He added that over 250 bomb-laden vehicles and the entire bomb-making workshops of the terrorists have been destroyed in Mosul which means that the ISIL has been paralyzed by the Iraqi forces.

The Iraqi Army started a new phase of its military operation in Nineveh province late February to drive the ISIL terrorists out of their bastion in the Western part of the city of Mosul.

With half the city under the control of Baghdad forces, the Iraqi Armed Forces will likely face heavier resistance in the Western part of Mosul, as the ISIL attempts to hold onto their final positions.

Local sources had disclosed that the ISIL is preventing civilians in the Western part of the city of Mosul from leaving the region in a move to use them as human shields as the terrorist group's positions are under intensifying attacks by various troops.

Commanders expect the battle in Western Mosul to be more difficult, in part because tanks and armoured vehicles cannot pass through the narrow alleyways that crisscross ancient districts of the city. The Western part of Mosul, with its narrow streets and heavily populated neighborhoods, appears to be a bigger challenge to the Iraqi army forces.

847/940