Iraqi forces step up encirclement of Mosul

As sporadic clashes continue in Kirkuk, Kurds announce new push on Bashiqa, a town northeast of the IS-held city

A displaced young Iraqi boy holds a pigeon at a refugee camp in the town ofQayyarah, south of Mosul.—PHOTO: AFP

Iraqi forces battled on Sunday through booby-traps, sniper fire and suicide car bombs to continue their Mosul offensive, while also hunting Islamic State (IS) group jihadists behind attacks elsewhere in the country.

Kurdish forces announced a new push at dawn Sunday on Bashiqa, northeast of Mosul where some 10,000 fighters are engaged in a huge assault to take the IS-held town.

The push came with U.S. Secretary of Defence Ashton Carter in Iraq’s autonomous region of Kurdistan to support the unprecedented offensive, which a U.S.-led coalition is backing with air and ground support.

The

jihadists hit on Friday with a surprise assault on the Kurdish-controlled city of Kirkuk and two days later security forces were still tracking down fighters involved in the attack.

The dozens of attackers, including several suicide bombers, failed to seize control of key government buildings but sowed chaos in Kirkuk, a large oil-rich and ethnically mixed city.

At least 51 of the

jihadists had been killed, including three more on Sunday, local security officials sai

46 killed in Kirkuk

Sporadic clashes continued, a senior security official said, with forces besieging IS gunmen in Kirkuk’s Nidaa neighbourhood.

At least 46 people, most of them members of the security forces, were killed in the raid and ensuing clashes.

IS jihadists also attacked Rutba, a remote town near the Jordanian border in the western province of Anbar, with five suicide car bombs, the area’s top Army commander said on Sunday.

On a trip to Iraq to review the operation, Mr. Carter met Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi on Saturday and Kurdish leader Massud Barzani on Sunday.

A French government official told AFP the breach into Mosul, which could mark the beginning of a phase of fierce street battles with IS, could still be a month away. — AFP