Iraqi forces yesterday launched an offensive on jihadists defending Mosul's west bank, in what could be the most brutal fighting yet in a four-month-old operation on the country's second city.
They swiftly retook at least five villages and set their sights on Mosul airport, which lies just south of the city, marking a new phase in Iraq's largest military operation in years.
The Islamic State group has put up stiff resistance to defend Mosul, the city where its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed a "caliphate" in 2014.
"Our forces are beginning the liberation of the citizens from the terror of Daesh," Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said in a short televised speech, using an Arabic acronym for IS.
"We announce the start of a new phase in the operation. We are coming, Nineveh, to liberate the western side of Mosul," he said, referring to the province of which Mosul is the capital.
A top army commander then announced that forces led by federal police units retook villages south of Mosul, including Athbah, which leaves them within striking distance of the airport.
"We launched our operation at 7:00 am (0400 GMT)... We are heading towards the airport," said Abbas al-Juburi of the interior ministry's elite Rapid Response force.
"We destroyed two car bombs and killed several Daesh members," he told AFP near the front line.
Smoke rises after a rocket landed in the middle of the Iraqi rapid response forces' position during a battle against Islamic State militants in the south of Mosul, Iraq, yesterday. Photo: Reuters
TOUGHEST NUT
Military vehicles blared patriotic songs as heavy bombardment and shooting could be heard in the distance.
The jihadists overran Mosul and swathes of other territory north and west of Baghdad in 2014, sweeping aside security forces ill-prepared to face the assault.
The Iraqi government launched the offensive to reconquer Mosul on October 17, throwing tens of thousands of forces into the long-awaited counter-attack with air and ground support from the US-led coalition.
The Joint Operations Command coordinating the fight against IS declared east Mosul "fully liberated" on January 24.
But it took Iraq's most seasoned forces -- the elite Counter-Terrorism Service -- __more than two months to clear the eastern side of Mosul.
TRAPPED CIVILIANS
Aid organisations had feared an exodus of unprecedented proportions before the start of the Mosul operation but half a million -- a significant majority -- of residents stayed home.
Their continued presence prevented both sides from resorting to deadlier weaponry, which may have slowed down the battle but averted a potentially much __more serious humanitarian emergency in the middle of winter as well as more extensive material damage to the city.
"We are racing against the clock to prepare emergency sites south of Mosul to receive displaced families," the UN's humanitarian coordinator in Iraq, Lise Grande, said in a statement.
Residents of west Mosul have reported very difficult living conditions and warned that they were already low on food, with weeks of fighting expected to lie ahead.
Save the Children urged all parties to protect the estimated 350,000 children currently trapped in west Mosul.
"This is the grim choice for children in western Mosul right now: bombs, crossfire and hunger if they stay -- or execution and snipers if they try to run," said the charity's Iraq director, Maurizio Crivallero.
IS fighters and Mosul residents remained able to move across both sides of the city during much of the fighting in the east but all bridges across the Tigris have now been dropped and the jihadists in the west are all but besieged.
IS has used civilians as human shields as part of its defence tactics and killed residents attempting to flee, making it both difficult and dangerous for the population to escape.