LIVE UPDATES: Battle for Mosul, Day 34

Rudaw

 

6:54 PM

Shiite force: ISIS has shut down all major installations in Tal Afar


The state-backed Hashd al-Shaabi said ISIS has shut down all of its major installations in Tal Afar, a town west of Mosul on which the Shiite paramilitary force says it is advancing.


“ISIS has shut down all its main bases in Tal Afar,” the Hashd al-Shaabi said on its official website, days after reporting that its forces had taken over the town’s airport.


The paramilitaries, who have been fighting west of Mosul, say they have cut the ISIS route from Mosul to the city of Raqqa in Syria, which the militants claim as the capital of their so-called caliphate. 

------

6:36 PM

 

Iraqi forces liberate two more Mosul neighborhoods


MOSUL, Iraq – The Iraqi Army announced it has reclaimed the Moalimin and Oulama neighborhoods in eastern Mosul from ISIS and is close to recapturing nearby Zihur.


“Many of the militants have been killed in the confrontation,” Brig. Gen. Fazil Berwari, a Kurdish commander in the Iraqi Golden Forces said, while confirming the liberation of the new neighborhoods.


Coalition forces were bombing ISIS in support of the offensive in Mosul and in Syrian Raqqa, which ISIS claims as the capital of its so-called caliphate.


“27 new airstrikes supporting simultaneous offensive towards Raqqa and Mosul,” tweeted Brett Mcgurk, the US special envoy to the global coalition fighting ISIS.


“Close cooperation between our air coalition and Iraqi force liberating Mosul” Mcgurk tweeted on Saturday.



---

16:54

Street-to-street fighting with ISIS slows Iraqi Army advance in Mosul

 


-------


4:00pm


Iraqi forces say they have liberated the villages of Qarah Shur and Kahariz, north of the Nimrud sub-district that lies south of Mosul.

VIDEO: Airstrikes carried out against ISIS positions in Mosul

---

12:27pm


Iraqi army liberates ancient town of Nimrud

The Iraqi army said Saturday it had liberated Nimrud, 30 kilometers south of Mosul and the site of an ancient 13th century Assyrian city, after inflicting heavy losses to ISIS.
 
“The units from the 9th armored division liberated the sub-district of Nimrud and raised the Iraqi flag over the town's building, after inflicting heavy losses on the enemy,” a military statement said.
 
The ancient site was overrun by ISIS more than two years ago.
 
ISIS destroyed some parts of the ancient Assyrian site, and then published a video of the destruction in April 2015.

The Iraqi army "mistakenly" announced the liberation of the sub-district last Sunday. 

---

12:19


Entire family burnt to death in Mosul, Iraqi soldiers injured

Members of an entire family were burnt to death inside their vehicle and a number of Iraqi soldiers were injured when an ISS truck bomb exploded between the Tahrir and Muharibeen neighborhoods of Mosul, Rudaw's Sangar Abdulrahman reported from Zahra neighborhood, northeastern Mosul.

Abdulrahman said he did not know the exact figure for the causalities, but added that the powerful explosion destroyed four Iraqi military vehicles. 

 

Follow Mosul offensive on Rudaw's live map

See full screen

Map legend:

Dark green - under Peshmerga control
Light green - encircled/battling by Peshmerga
Red - under Iraqi control
Pink - encircled/battling by Iraqi forces
Yellow - under Hashd al-Shaabi control
Orange - encircled/battling by Hashd al-Shaabi

---

11:30am


Intense clashes erupted between the state-backed Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitary and the ISIS militants near the Tal Afar airport, 60 km west of Mosul. 

 



---

11:10am

 

intense clashes in Mosul's northeastern neighborhoods 


Iraqi forces face strong resistance from the so-called Islamic State in Mosul's northeastern neighborhoods of Tahrir, Muharibeen, and Qadisiyah on Saturday, Rudaw’s team of correspondents reported.
 
Reporter Hevidar Ahmed said they could hear calls for Jihad from some mosques controlled by ISIS militants. He also said some ISIS militants use the tall minarets from which they target Iraqi troops with sniper fire.
 
Lt. Gen. Abdulwahab al-Saadi from Iraq's Golden Brigade told Rudaw on Friday night that Tahrir had been liberated by the counter terrorism forces.
 
 

A-Saadi claimed that his forces were now in control of 10 neighborhoods out of 50 on the left bank of the Tigris River, eastern Mosul. 

 


---

11:00am


CENTCOM commander Gen Votel discuss Mosul war with Iraq PM in Baghdad

 The Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi and the the commander of the US Central Command General Joseph Votel  discussed on Friday the ongoing war against the so-called Islamic State in Mosul where the Iraqi forces, supported by the US-led coalition, has made slow progress in their push into the city of Mosul, northern Iraq, a statement from the Iraqi PM office said 


“They discussed the course of the Mosul battle, the advance of our heroic forces in all the fronts, and the training and arming of  the Iraqi forces,”the statement read from the Iraqi PM office following the meeting in Baghdad.


The statement added that General Votel reaffirmed their continued support to Iraq in the war against ISIS, and the training and arming of the Iraqi forces.


This meeting comes as the Iraqi air force received four more F16 fighter jets from the United States on Friday, bringing the total of the delivered fighter jets to 14 in four phases since 2014.


The US-led coalition carried out 12 air strikes in support of the Iraqi forces in different parts of the country, including in Mosul.