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by Jamal Hashim
BAGHDAD, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Heavy clashes are underway as the Iraqi forces are fighting inside the city of Mosul on Thursday after more than two weeks of a major offensive to flush out the extremist Islamic State (IS) militants from their last stronghold in Iraq.
Iraqi forces, including elite counter-terrorism forces, Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, Sunni tribesmen and pre-dominantly Shiite Hashd Shaabi units, are currently engaged in the offensive to retake Mosul that started on Oct. 17. The operation is estimated to take weeks, if not months.
On Oct. 31, the Iraqi-led forces have made a significant progress on the fringes of the city and managed later to enter Mosul's eastern Gogjali district and took first foothold in the city, sparking first street battles inside the city after it was seized by IS more than two years ago.
The troops are in heavy clashes with IS militants as they are trying to extend foothold inside the eastern part of the city.
On Thursday, the Iraqi forces, backed by international coalition and Iraqi aircraft, made a new push and took new positions at the edges of the districts of Intisar, Karama and Samah in eastern Mosul, said Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi, commander of the Iraqi counter-terrorism forces.
"The Iraqi army artillery and mortars are shelling the IS positions in three districts, and the troops could start storming the three districts in the coming hours," Saadi said.
"The presence of civilians in the districts is hampering an all-out attack to sweep the IS positions," he added.
Progress has also been made on front lines in other directions around Mosul.
In north of the city, Iraqi army and allied Sunni fighters of Hashd Watani advanced closer to the northern fringes of Mosul two days after they freed two villages and nearby Shalalat area, some 7 km northeast of Mosul.
Kurdish Peshmerga also made advance in northeast of Mosul and recaptured several villages and surrounded Bashiqa town, 30 km away from Mosul.
Other troops are coming closer to the southeastern edge of Mosul after clearing the villages of Twila and Sharezad, and prepared to push into Jadidat al-Mufti district, but the troops were encountered by stiff resistance from the IS militants.
In south of Mosul, the Iraqi army, federal police and allied Hashd Shaabi units met fierce resistance from IS militants. They retook several villages and are now 15 km away from the city.
Also on Thursday, the Hashd Shaabi units recaptured a total of six villages as they advanced in southwest of Mosul toward the town of Tal Afar, Lieutenant General Abul-Amir Yarallah from the Joint Operations Command told reporters.
The paramilitary units fought fierce clashes with the IS group during their advance, killing a large number of IS militants, including five suicide bombers wearing explosive vests, Yarallah said.
The operation of the pre-dominantly Shiite Hashd Shaabi units was designed to recapture Tal Afar in order to cut off the supply lines between Mosul and neighboring Syria.
Tal Afar, which is inhabited mostly by both Sunni and Shiite Turkoman, as well as other minorities of Kurds and Arabs, fell to IS control in 2014.
Early in the month, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, at the Qayyara military airbase south of Mosul, said the Iraqi forces were trying to close off all escape routes for the several thousand IS militants inside Mosul.
"They have no escape, they either die or surrender," he told state television.
IS militants have been fighting off the offensive with mortar fire, rockets, bombs, snipers, suicide attacks and booby traps.
Heavier battles are anticipated as some 3,000 to 5,000 IS militants are expected to show stiffer resistance in the populated neighborhoods.
However, the Iraqi army is confident that victory will come soon. Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said in an interview with Iraqi national television of Iraqya that he predicts that collapse of IS militants in Mosul will be fast.
"I believe the counter-terrorism forces will manage soon to seize the districts of Karama and nearby district, and that will enable them to go deeper into the center of the city left bank (eastern side of Mosul)," Khalaf said.
He said that the fall of the western side of Mosul will be fast, as the fall of the eastern side, which forms two-third of the city, will be the main part of the battle.
"There is a well-known principle in the military action: those who were defeated and changed their position will not be able to fight in the new position, because their will to fight will be weak," Khalaf said.
However, some experts showed their concerns that the street battles will be difficult.
Laith al-Ani, a military expert, told Xinhua that IS group has evacuated most of its fighters from its headquarters in the eastern side to the western side.
"Most of the neighborhoods in the eastern side were built in recent decades with separated houses and wide streets, which would be difficult for IS militants to defend, unlike the neighborhoods of the western side where the old city located with its heavy populated old buildings and narrow alleys," Ani said.
The battles in the eastern side of Mosul would mainly depend on suicide car bombs, roadside bombs and snipers attacks, which aim at hindering the progress of the troops, while the fierce battles are expected to be on the western side, he said.
He added that Mosul is the IS last major stronghold in Iraq, so the group is unwilling to surrender without a fight.
In the past two and a half years, the militants dug an extensive network of tunnels to transport equipment and fighters, and rigged roads and bridges with bombs.
In an audio recording posted online by IS websites late on Wednesday, the IS top leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi urged his fighters not to retreat from Mosul.
He called on the militants "to confront the enemy (security forces) and transform their blood into rivers, their days into dark nights," according to the recording which could not be authentically verified.
Mosul, with a population of about 1.5 million and some 400 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, has been under IS control since June 2014.
The United Nations has warned of a displacement of up to one million people, requiring the world's largest humanitarian operation.
