Iraqi forces seize key power station that supplies electricity to entire Mosul

MOSUL, Iraq — Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) have controlled a major power station in Mosul that supplies electricity to the whole city, Iraq’s defense ministry claimed on Saturday, following a similar takeover on Sunday.

 

“The 9th armoured division liberated the Yarmuk power station that supplies electricity to the entire city of Mosul,” the defence ministry said.

 

Iraqi forces have also stormed three districts in southern Mosul on the edges of the Tigris river that bisects the city, as they are continuing to clean the district of al-Maamun, further southwest of the city.

 

The Federal Police have stormed al-Tayyaran and al-Jawsaq Saturday, Lt. Gen. Abdul Amir Rashid Yarallah, Commander of the Nineveh operations, stated. 

 

Rudaw’s Sidad Lashkiri, embedded with the Iraqi forces said earlier in the day that the Federal Police and Rapid Response Forces have been attacking ISIS since 6 a.m., controlling more than 40 percent of Tayyaran.

 

The elite Counter Terrorism Service (ICTS) also said to have continued to clean al-Maamun district, southern most district of the largely ISIS-held western part of the city, Yarallah added, reporting that the ICTS have stormed Wadi Hajar, next to Tayyaran. 

 

Rudaw’s team of reporters on the ground reported that the retreating ISIS militants relied heavily on car bomb attacks against the Iraqi security forces, detonating at least 10 such bombs as of Saturday afternoon.

 

Rudaw’s war correspondent and anchor Shifa Gardi, who was killed by a roadside bomb in Mosul on Saturday, reported shortly before her death that people were fleeing the heavy clashes by buses out of the right bank of the city.

 

“Five buses, fraught with people, including a majority of women and children have run away.  Their situation is miserable and have left everything,” said Gardi, aboard one such bus.

 

“There were only women and children with some men and juveniles. After they undergo investigations, making sure that they have not helped ISIS militants, they will be allowed to take shelter at refugee camps,” she added. 

 

The mainly Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi liberated the three villages of al-Abra al-Kabira, al-Abra al Shimaliyah, and al-Abra al-Janubiyah, Yarallah said. 

 

The western half of the city is estimated to be home to approximately 750,000 civilians whom the United Nations warned on Saturday were in a humanitarian crisis. The people are suffering from shortages of basic necessities including food and fuel. Prices for all the goods in the city have skyrocketed, the UN stated

 

The ISF declared the liberation of Lazakah power station on Sunday, said to have supplied electricity to the entire western Mosul.

 

As ISIS lost control over the eastern half of Mosul, it cut off the national power grid to the liberated areas, leaving locals to depend on private generators. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told reporters late last month that the government was trying to solve the issue. He confirmed that the national grid is delivered to the liberated areas in Mosul from the western half, which was then under full control of the extremist group.