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Reuters
MOSUL, Iraq
US-backed Iraqi forces attacked Islamic State's remaining redoubt in Mosul's Old City on Friday, a day after formally declaring the end of the insurgents'self-declared caliphate and the capture of the historic mosque which symbolized their power.
Dozens of civilians fled in the direction of the Iraqi forces, mostly women and children, some wounded by insurgents fire, thirsty and tired.
Commanders of Iraq's CTS counter terrorism units cautioned that with the mostly non-Iraqi IS militants dug in among civilians and likely to fight to the death, the battle ahead was challenging.
CTS Major General Maan al-Saadi said it could take four to five days of fighting to capture the insurgents'redoubt by the Tigris River, defended by about 200 militants.
"The advance continues to Midan neighborhood,"he said."Controlling it means we have reached the Tigris River."
The IS militants themselves denied the setbacks, their weekly publication alleging that the Iraqi army had collapsed with big casualties.
The group, whose leader declared a caliphate over parts of Iraq and Syria almost three years ago, still occupies an area as big as Belgium across the two neighbouring countries, according to one estimate.
The fall of Mosul would in effect mark the end of the Iraqi half of the caliphate, although the group still controls territory west and south of the city, ruling over hundreds of thousands of people.
Its stronghold in Syria, Raqqa, is also under siege. US-backed forces encircle the city after closing the militants'last way out from the south, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said on Thursday. .
The insurgent position in Mosul is several hundred metres wide and tens of thousands of civilians are trapped there in harrowing conditions, with little food, water, medicine and no access to health services, according to those who managed to flee.
Those who escaped on Friday streamed through alleyways near the Grand al-Nuri Mosque, which Islamic State fighters blew up a week ago.
A reporter saw smoke billowing over the riverside districts amid artillery blasts and burst of gunfire. Western troops from the US-led coalition were helping adjust artillery fire with air surveillance, he said.
Iraqi Prime Minister Hailer al-Abadi declared the end of Islamic States'caliphate which he called"a state of falsehoood"on Thursday after CTS units captured the ground of the ruined 850-year-old mosque.
It was from the mosque's pulpit that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared his caliphate almost three years ago to the day.
