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Iraqi forces have regained control of the airport in Mosul, part of a months-long operation to push ISIS militants from the key city.

The airport largely destroyed by ISIS forces is now fully under Iraqi Federal Police control, said Col. Abdel Amir Mohamed, commander of the Rapid Response Unit of the Federal Police.

Brett McGurk, the US envoy for the anti-ISIS coalition, congratulated Iraq for the victory.

Congratulations to Iraqi forces for completing complex maneuver ops to secure #Mosul airport from #ISIS terrorists, he tweeted. #ISIS is now trapped.

Iraqi forces launched a new bid to retake the western parts of the city on Sunday after declaring in late January that the east had been liberated.

Latest developments

Joint Operations Command says forces killed many ISIS militants and defused 60 IEDs on Thursday Iraqi forces have faced ISIS suicide car bombs and improvised explosive devices. Counter-terrorism forces have stormed the al-Ghazlani military base west of the airport. There has been heavy fighting between Iraqi forces and ISIS at Mosuls main electrical power station. Residents say ISIS is searching homes for cell phones. Residents from eastern Mosul, under Iraqi control, send letters of support to the residents in the west.

Federal police and rapid response forces, backed by drones and heavy artillery, advanced from several positions to storm the airport, Lt. Gen. Raid Shakir Jaudat said in a statement earlier Thursday. ISIS has held the airport since 2014 and has largely destroyed its infrastructure.

Sources have told CNN in recent months that ISIS has sabotaged the airstrip there to prevent its use.

The airport is on a large area of land in that city that is a symbolically important target for Iraqi forces. The area is an access point into the city from the southwest of the country. Taking it puts Iraqi forces in control of an area on the rivers west bank for the first time.

Forces took the airport in a few hours and appear to be moving swiftly, taking back control of two villages Yarmouk and Tal al-Rayan near the airport and the al-Ghazlani military camp.

They have also taken control of an ISIS weapons storage warehouse, former ISIS headquarters and the barracks at al-Ghazlani, Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasoul, a spokesperson for the Iraqi operation told CNN.

On top of that, the Joint Operations Command center reported that forces destroyed many ISIS vehicles, defused 60 improvised explosive devices and killed many ISIS militants on Thursday.

But the push to take western Mosul is expected to take some time the east of the city took more than three months to take from ISIS control.

A city split

A resident of western Mosul told CNN that groups of ISIS fighters had been searching homes in one neighborhood near the rivers bank Thursday morning, looking for cell phones and residents using them. ISIS forbids the use of cell phones and has executed residents in the past for using them.

ISIS frequently accuses residents of passing information to Iraqi security forces, and metes out harsh punishment to people caught using phones.

The east and west is divided by the Tigris River, and US-led coalition airstrikes have damaged all five bridges connecting the two sides in an effort to contain the militants in the west.

Residents of eastern Mosul have written letters of solidarity that the Iraqi Air Force dropped over western neighborhoods Wednesday.

CNN went aboard an Air Force plane and met two residents of the east who had written some of the letters. One, Ghassan Mohammed Saadoun, said that he had received similar reassuring letters from other Iraqis when the east was being liberated.

He said ISIS had tried to confiscate those letters.

I have lived that experience and seen these letters and leaflets, but ISIS tried to prevent us from seeing them as much as they can. When that happened, the children of ISIS went out into the streets and collected these letters early in the morning hours so no one could read them, he said.

One of the letters read: Do not be afraid of the security forces they are coming to protect and to liberate you from injustice. Collaborate with them and dont be afraid of them. They are your sons. We wish you safety and security.

Another read: We ask Allah to ease the pain that you are in. We pray to Allah to protect you. We ask you to please stay indoors for your safety when security forces arrive in your areas. Allah bless you our people.

Rights groups fear high death toll

Iraqi commanders say the battle for western Mosul will be the toughest fight yet against ISIS. Over the past two years, the militant group has dedicated much of its defensive preparation to the western part of the city.

The city has networks of alleys that are impassable by military vehicles. Human rights organizations fear that the use of heavy weaponry in the narrow streets of the old city where an estimated 650,000 civilians are still trapped would probably result in very high human toll.

Meanwhile, US troops operating around Mosul have been in exchanges of fire with ISIS, and some have been wounded in the last six to eight weeks as they have pushed closer to key frontlines, military officials acknowledged Tuesday.

A US defense official confirmed some had been injured on the battlefield but declined to give numbers, saying that the injured had been evacuated from the battlefield.

The offensive to retake Mosul began in October in an extraordinary union of Iraqi troops and militia representing minority ethnic and religious groups that have often stood on opposing sides in Iraqs history.

Read more from the original source:
Iraq retakes Mosul airport; 'ISIS is now trapped,' US envoy says - fox6now.com

ISIS is on the path to poverty, according to a new joint study, Caliphate in Decline: An Estimate of Islamic States Financial Fortunes, from the London-based International Center for the Study of Radicalization and Ernst & Young.

The terror group is apparently suffering from financial difficulties, to put it mildly. Facts and figures show that over the last two years, revenues for ISIS have fallen by more than 50 percent.

Still, study authors have concluded that its not yet time to breathe easy about the groups dismantling.

The decline in revenues may not have an immediate effect on the groups ability to carry out terrorist attacks outside its territory, the study said, Breitbart reported. While hurting Islamic State finances puts pressure on the organization and its state-building project, wider efforts will continue to be necessary to ultimately defeat it.

The authors also point to the fact ISIS is continually recruiting, and reaching out to other sources of potential income.

Read Isis Rising: Prelude to a neo-Ottoman Caliphate to find out what the terror camp leaders really want to do.

One looming possibility?

Afghanistan.

The countrys rich with opium, and ISIS could tap further into that drug trade, which includes the derivative heroin, to bolster its income. In fact, some estimates say ISIS can derive up to $50 billion annually from sales of Afghan-tied opium and heroin.

From the report, as cited by Breitbart:

The groups most significant sources of revenue are closely tied to its territory. They are: (1) taxes and fees; (2) oil; and (3) looting, confiscations, and fines. We have found no hard evidence that foreign donations continue to be significant. Similarly, revenues from the sale of antiquities and kidnap for ransom, while difficult to quantify, are unlikely to have been major sources of income.

There are no signs yet that the group has created significant new funding streams that would make up for recent losses. With current trends continuing, the Islamic States business model will soon fail, the study continued.

The study authors say the reason ISIS is currently facing financial trouble is that members constantly rely too heavily on the populations and territories they take over as sources of money.

According to figures provided by the Global Coalition, by November 2016 Islamic State had lost 62 percent of its mid-2014 peak territory in Iraq, and 30 per cent in Syria. From a revenue perspective, this means fewer people and businesses to tax and less control over natural resources such as oil fields, the report stated. There are good reasons to believe that Islamic State revenues will further decline. In particular, capturing Mosul, the caliphates commercial capital, will have a significant detrimental effect on Islamic State finances.

Read Isis Rising: Prelude to a neo-Ottoman Caliphate to find out what the terror camp leaders really want to do.

More:
ISIS 'poised to go broke in Iraq, Syria' - WND.com

New York Times

Jim Mattis to Baghdad: 'We're Not in Iraq to Seize Anybody's Oil' New York Times BAGHDAD Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, on the first visit by a senior Trump administration official to Iraq, worked on Monday to repair breaches of trust with Iraq's leaders caused by his boss just as the two sides began a major offensive to oust the ... Iraq Is a Huge Opportunity for TrumpWall Street Journal (subscription) Trump's defense chief, in Iraq, says: We're not here for your oilCNBC Defense Chief Contradicts Trump on Iraq and OilNewsweek Washington Post -Chicago Tribune all 385 news articles »

Read more here:
Jim Mattis to Baghdad: 'We're Not in Iraq to Seize Anybody's Oil' - New York Times

Baghdad (ICRC) As fighting intensifies around the Iraqi city of Mosul, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is increasing its presence in the field, in order to respond swiftly to new humanitarian needs. Two additional surgical teams are in the process of being deployed to hospitals receiving wounded from the front lines, while stocks of food and other essentials are ready to be distributed to people displaced by violence.

"When people start to flee the western side of Mosul, we are expecting that many will arrive in bad shape. Supply routes have been cut from that side of the city and people have been facing shortages of food, water, fuel, and medicine. We can only imagine the state people will be in," said the ICRC's field coordinator in Erbil, Dany Merhy. The western side of the city is densely populated, and the ICRC is extremely worried about the safety and welfare of hundreds of thousands there who chose to stay or are currently unable to leave.

The ICRC is sending additional medical staff surgeons, trauma nurses, anaesthetists to hospitals receiving wounded from the front lines, to ensure medical facilities can cope with rising demands for emergency treatment and care. This deployment is being supported by Red Cross National Societies from Finland, Norway and Germany. An ICRC surgical team has already been working at Sheikhan hospital near Mosul since October 2016.

"All sides must do everything in their power to protect civilians who stay in Mosul, just as they must ensure safe passage for those who leave the city," said the ICRC's head of delegation in Iraq, Katharina Ritz. "They must also do their utmost to minimize the damage to civilian homes as well as to infrastructure essential for their survival and, given the extensive damage they cause, avoid the use of explosive weapons in populated areas."

Since the start of the Mosul offensive, the ICRC has provided food, clean water and essential relief items to over 130,000 people. It has set-up operating theatres and provided war-wounded kits and other medical supplies to health structures that can help treat more than 280,000 patients. The ICRC has also helped train emergency staff.

For further information, please contact:

Sara Alzawqari (English/Arabic), ICRC Baghdad, tel: +964 790 191 69 27Iolanda Jaquemet, ICRC Geneva, + 41 79 447 37 26

Read the original here:
Iraq: the ICRC steps up its humanitarian response around Mosul - ICRC (press release)

about 10 hours ago Updated: about an hour ago

Battlefield defeats in Iraq and Syria continued to splinter the so-called Islamic States hold on both countries on Thursday, with Mosul airport seized by advancing Iraqi forces and the town of al-Bab finally falling to Syrian rebels.

Backed heavily by Turkey, rebels said they had recaptured nearly all of al-Bab, which had remained Isiss westernmost stronghold throughout five months of intensive fighting and a key target of the war against the terror group.

The seizure of al-Bab came as the airfield on the western outskirts of Iraqs second city fell to Iraqi troops after a brief, but intense, battle. Its capture allows advancing government forces to consolidate a stronghold close to Mosul before launching an all-out push to retake it a move that would strip Isis of its last urban stronghold in Iraq.

By nightfall, troops were moving into the sprawling airfield to launch operations into the fortified western suburbs, where several thousand of Isiss most seasoned fighters have prepared for a last stand.

If the west of the city falls, the extremists presence in Iraq will be confined to a border area in the countrys northwest, which spills towards its last remaining centre of gravity, the Syrian city of Raqqa.

Backed by US jets and drones, national police forces were first into the Mosul airfield and had secured most of the runway by noon local time. Militants had laid mines throughout the disused complex and were clashing heavily with advancing forces, before capitulating late in the afternoon.

A spokesman for the Iraqi counter-terrorism forces, Sabah al-Numan, said: Our forces started a major operation this morning to storm the Ghazlani airport base and I can confirm that it is only a matter of time before we control the whole area.

The seizure of the base will give the forces and their US backers control of two large airfields near Mosul, the other one being the Qayyarah military base, to the south of the city.

In al-Bab, a Syrian rebel spokesman said mines had been laid every square metre throughout the centre of the city, which had been home to Isiss external operations arm that part of the organisation responsible for plotting a series of spectacular terror attacks in Europe.

Rebels advanced cautiously through central neighbourhoods as Isis members retreated to the west, where a series of towns and villages spreading towards Raqqa offer one of its last redoubts in Syria.

Outnumbered and outgunned in Syria and Iraq, Isis is expected to intensify the guerrilla campaigns that became its signature acts in both countries over the past 2 years, in which it ran rampant over a large swath of the region.

Mines, barricades, trenches and tunnels were littered throughout eastern Mosul, making heavy going for Iraqi forces, which eventually retook the area earlier this year after a three-month battle.

However, the west of the city is a more difficult landscape to take militarily. West Mosuls narrow streets will make the going tough for armoured vehicles, meaning a lot of the fighting will need to be done house to house.

Isis is known to have deployed dozens of suicide bombers along approaches.

A British jihadi, Jamal al-Harith, born Ronald Fiddler, is thought to have been among them and to have blown himself up in an area known as Abu Saif on Monday.

Aid organisations say as many as 750,000 civilians may still be in western Mosul. Mercy Corpss country director, Suad Jarbawi, said: We need to be nimble and ready to respond to the needs of the people wherever and however we find them.

In the battle for the eastern half of the city of Mosul we saw the overwhelming majority of civilians staying in their homes rather than fleeing. This was a marked departure from what weve seen in previous battles. However, we dont yet know what civilians in the western side of the city will choose to do.

As many as half of Mosuls remaining residents are thought to be under 18, and 160,000 have already fled the west of the city for newly erected refugee camps to the south. Iraqi forces have detained hundreds of military-aged men as they have fled, in an attempt to weed out any Isis members among them.

Iraqs prime minister Haider al-Abadi has demanded that troops be held accountable for any abuses. In the fight for the east of the city, relatively few allegations of abuse arose, with national police and soldiers winning the cautious trust of communities who, before the Isis takeover of Mosul in mid-2014, had been deeply wary of a security order imposed by Baghdad.

Guardian service

The rest is here:
Isis suffers strategic reversals in Iraq and Syria - Irish Times