ISLAMIC STATE IN FIERCE BATTLE FOR MOSUL

One million civilians believed to be trapped

BA ZWAYA, I R AQ • Waving white flags and looking equally relieved and bewildered, crowds of civilians were headed for safety Tuesday, riding in battered cars and trucks that rumbled down the road east of Bazwaya.

Iraqi troops had arrived in Bazwaya and were using the strategic village on the eastern outskirts of Mosul as the launch pad for their first assault on the city limits.

By the end of the day, troops from the Golden Division, part of Iraq’s Counter Terrorism Service (CTS), had seized a foothold inside the city at Gogjali, an industrial district of Mosul less than five kilometres away.

“Now is the beginning of the true liberation of the city of Mosul,” Gen. Taleb Sheghati al-Kenani, head of the CTS, said from Gogjali.

Iraq’s Joint Operations Command said troops had “entered the Judaidat AlMufti area, within the left bank of the city.”

The assaults mark the beginning of the endgame in a massive offensive launched two weeks ago and involving tens of thousands of Iraqi and Kurdish troops backed by U.S.-led airstrikes. Residents reported airstrikes and artillery pounding the city.

“We can see Daesh (also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL) fighters firing toward the Iraqi forces and moving in cars between the alleys of the neighbourhood. It’s street fighting,” one resident said.

Inside Bazwaya, white flags hung from buildings where they had been placed the day before by residents keen to show they welcomed the Iraqi forces. Those taking the road out were headed to Bartella, a small Christian town captured by the Golden Division last month, and on to a newly built displacement camp at the nearby village of Khazer.

A shepherd held up the traffic as he led his sheep away from the fighting. Taking no chances, he too wielded a white piece of cloth on the back of his donkey. They are the lucky ones. Up to one million people are believed to be trapped in Mosul. They include up to 600,000 children, according to Save The Children, which called for safe corridors as Iraqi forces advanced on the city.

Commanders hav e warned the battle could last for months. ISIL has attempted to thwart the Iraqi and Kurdish advance by leaving towns and villages en route to Mosul littered with improvised explosive devices and criss-crossed by tunnels sometimes hiding fighters. Suicide bombers are a constant threat.

“We expect the fighting to get more intense as we enter the city,” said Ahmed Majid, one of the Golden Division soldiers holding Bazwaya. “Daesh doesn’t have enough men, so they defend with suicide trucks and roadside bombs.”