Battle for Mosul: Iraqi forces reclaim university buildings from Islamic State militants

Posted January 15, 2017 11:13:42

Iraqi men with gun crouch with guns, buildings and trees in the background

Photo: Iraqi senior commanders say forces have secured more than half of the university. (AP: Khalid Mohammed)

Iraqi forces have won a string of swift territorial gains in Mosul in the fight against the Islamic State group, including a number of buildings at the Mosul University, according to military officials.

Key Points:

Special forces say university is most important IS base in the east
"In the coming hours it will be liberated completely," Lieutenant General says
Western Mosul assault is expected to restart after the eastern bank is secured

Senior commanders say Iraqi forces have secured more than half of the university campus amid stiff resistance, but clashes were ongoing into the afternoon.

Iraqi forces entered the university from the south-east on Friday morning and by nightfall had secured a handful of buildings, Brigadier General Haider Fadhil and Lieutenant General Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi said.

"We watched all the IS fighters gather in that building, so we blew it up," said special forces Sergeant Major Haytham Ghani, pointing to one of the blackened technical college buildings where charred desks could be seen inside.

"You can still see some of their corpses."

Thick clouds of black smoke rose from the middle of the sprawling complex on Saturday morning (local time), in a second day of clashes there.

By afternoon, clashes had intensified with volleys of sniper and mortar fire targeting the advancing Iraqi forces.

Convoys of Iraqi Humvees snaked through the campus, pausing for artillery and airstrikes to clear snipers perched within classrooms, dormitories and behind the trees that line the campus streets.

Iraqi special forces clashes new the university complex.

Photo: Iraqi special forces clash with Islamic State militants near the university complex. (Reuters: Ahmed Saad)

"We entered the university and cleared the technical institute, dentistry and antiquities departments," CTS Lieutenant General Abdelwahab al-Saadi told a Reuters reporter in the complex.

In the coming hours it will be liberated completely," he said.

US-back air offensive in Mosul

Iraqi forces have made rapid advances since the New Year, as part of a nearly three-month, US-backed offensive.

IS defences in the city's east appear to be thinning, and unlike in the surrounding neighbourhoods, Iraqi officers said they believed Mosul University and recently retaken government buildings were largely empty of civilians, allowing them to use air cover more liberally.

The military will be able to begin attacks on western Mosul, which the Islamic State group still fully controls, once it has captured the eastern bank of the river.

The head of Iraq's Counter Terrorism service (CTS) said security forces were close to seizing the entire east bank of the Tigris, which bisects Mosul north to south.

That gain will bring at least half of IS's last major stronghold in Iraq back under government control.

The militants have fought back fiercely with car bombs and snipers, and have used civilians as cover.

An air raid targeting a senior Islamic State militant on Thursday killed up to 30 people in a western Mosul district, residents said.

It was not immediately clear if the strike was carried out by Iraqi forces or the US-led coalition.

The Islamic State group has also carried out attacks in Baghdad, where a string of explosions in the last two weeks has killed dozens of people.

Iraqi soldiers at Mosul University said while they were still coming under heavy small arms fire, IS resistance was significantly less than they faced during the first weeks of the Mosul operation.

"We were targeted with only four car bombs where before [IS] would send 20 in one day," said special forces Lieutenant Zain al-Abadeen.

"And they aren't armoured like before, they're just using civilian cars."