Iraq News

Coalition takes aim at ISIL suicide bomb routes in Mosul

Coalition airstrikes have hampered the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL) group's ability to launch suicide attacks across Mosul, a British general said Wednesday (November 30th).

Suicide missions, particularly those conducted in explosive-laden vehicles, have been a vital weapon for ISIL fighters trying to fend off Iraqi forces pushing to recapture the group's last major stronghold in Iraq, AFP reported.

British Army Maj. Gen. Rupert Jones, a deputy commander for the coalition against ISIL in Iraq and Syria, said airstrikes had focused on cutting routes used by ISIL to manoeuver across the city.

So far, strikes have disabled four of the five bridges linking east and west Mosul, and peppered roads used by ISIL with craters, making them impassable.

"The intent of these operations is to reduce the effectiveness of the vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices," Jones told Pentagon reporters in a video call from Baghdad.

The bridges across the Tigris had not been totally destroyed, but partially damaged to make them unusable now but mendable in the future, he added.

"We are beginning to see a reduction in the amount of suicide attacks," Jones said, noting one reason was "damage to the bridges that is making it harder for ISIL to flow fighters and ammunition across the river".

The Iraqis say it could take up to six months to complete the Mosul liberation operation, and Jones said plans were "broadly on schedule".

"My sense is that the enemy are beginning to struggle," he said. "You do not liberate a heavily defended city the size of Mosul quickly, and patience is therefore needed."

Gen. Joseph Votel, who heads the US military's Central Command, said separately at a Washington think tank event that the Mosul fight could take "a couple more months".

It is "generally on track", he said, while warning of a hard fight ahead.

ISIL "is fighting hard right now, but you have to look at the wear and tear that they are absorbing", he told the Foreign Policy Initiative.

"We are going to move at the pace of our partners and continue to keep the momentum going."

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We want pure facts reflecting the field reality. There is no equality between the two sides of the battle. According to what we see, the Iraqi forces are not fighting to be victorious, but they are escaping death, and therefore they are killed. If those numbers attack together like one man, the battle will end without all those soldiers being killed. Until now, ISIL is the victorious because it has killed half of the attacking army and is still fighting fiercely. Reconsider your calculations because you’re fighting under the command of infidels in America and Britain.

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