Iraqi special forces battled Islamic State militants in districts near the Tigris river inMosul on Monday as they sought to bring more of the east of thecity back under government control.
The latest clashes occurred in the neighbouring Shurta and Andalus districts. At least three Islamic State suicide carbombs targeted Iraqi forces in Andalus. There was no immediate word on any casualties. In an online post, Islamic State said it had carried out a “martyrdom operation” in the area.
Iraq's elite Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) said the militants, who seized Mosul in 2014 as they swept across much ofnorthern Iraq, only to since lose much of that terrain togovernment counter-offensives, were fighting back hard.
“We've begun breaching [Shurta] but there was an attack afew moments ago. By the end of the day we'll make someprogress,” CTS spokesman Sabah al-Numan said.
Shurta and Andalus are situated close to the eastern bank ofthe Tigris, separated only by some woodland, and within sight of the city's northern most bridge across the river.
Iraqi forces, which have reached three of the five bridges, say they will soon fully control the eastern bank. They have already taken areas of the river bank further south.
Once the east bank is recaptured, they can begin attacks on western Mosul, which the Sunni Muslim extremist insurgents stillhold.
Iraqi forces have seized most of the east in a 3-month-old U.S.-backed campaign to oust the militants from Iraq's secondlargest city, Islamic State's last major Iraqi stronghold. The Tigris bisects Mosul from north to south.
A Reuters cameraman in a southern district along the Tigrissaid snipers from elite interior ministry combat units were firing across the river at Islamic State positions.
Fighting has intensified since the turn of the year as Iraqi forces have renewed an offensive against the ultra-hardline militants. Troops had got bogged down in late November and December after entering Mosul as IS fighters fought back with car bombs and snipers, and concealed themselves among a civilian population of up to 1.5 million.
MORE PEOPLE MADE HOMELESS
The United Nations said a further 32,000 Mosul residents had fled the city in just over two weeks, bringing the total numberof people made homeless in the campaign to retake Mosul to161,000.
A resident in western Mosul, reached by phone, said Islamic State combatants had stopped people living in the west fromcrossing the river to the east.
Another resident said a number of IS militants, including senior leaders in western Mosul, had left the city in the direction of Tal Afar, a town towards the Syrian border.
Shia Muslim militias have advanced on IS-held Tal Afar, and linked up with Kurdish fighters nearby in November.
The Mosul offensive, supported by U.S. coalition air power, involves 100,000-strong combined forces of Iraqi troops, Kurdish peshmerga fighters and Shia militias.
As IS has lost territory in its Mosul bastion, it has carried out bombing attacks in Baghdad and raids on police and army outposts elsewhere in the country. Since the turn of theyear, attacks in Baghdad have killed dozens of people.
New York-based Human Rights watch said on Monday that Islamic State's bombings, which have targeted crowded markets, amounted to “crimes against humanity".
“[IS] has routinely carried out devastating attacks that appear designed to inflict maximum death and suffering onordinary Iraqis,” HRW said in a statement. It urged the Iraqi government to greater assist victims of militant attacks.
