Mosul: Iraqi general calls on Islamic State fighters to surrender as operation enters third day

20 Oct 2016,

Islamic State militants have sent trucks loaded with explosives careening toward the front lines and fired mortars to slow the Iraqi forces' advance.

An Iraqi officer from the 9th Division told reporters that his troops were now around one kilometre away from Hamdaniyah, a historically Christian town also known as Bakhdida, to the east of Mosul.

Over the past day, IS militants sent 12 car bombs, all of which were blown up before reaching their targets, he said, adding that Iraqi troops suffered a small number of casualties from the mortar rounds.

The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to reporters, did not provide specific figures.

IS militants captured Mosul in a lightning advance in the summer of 2014, but he extremist group has suffered a string of defeats over the past year, and Mosul is its last major urban bastion in Iraq.

The operation to retake Mosul is the largest launched by the Iraqi army since the 2003 US-led invasion.

Around 25,000 troops, including Sunni tribal fighters, Kurdish forces known as the Peshmerga and state-sanctioned Shiite militias known as the Popular Mobilisation Units are approaching the city from different directions.

The participation of the Shiite militias in the operation to retake the mainly Sunni Mosul has raised concerns that the campaign could inflame sectarian tensions.

Rights groups have accused the Shiite militias of abuses in past campaigns against IS-held areas.

In a bid to alleviate those concerns, Shiite militia leaders have announced that they would only focus on capturing the mostly Shiite town of Tal Afar to the west of Mosul, and not enter the city itself.

"The only troops who will enter Mosul are the army and police, not the Popular Mobilisation Units or the Peshmerga," said Hadi al-Amiri, the leader of one of the largest Shiite militias.

"This has been agreed upon," he said at a press conference in the Shiite holy city of Najaf.