Six foreign IS leaders killed as Iraqi forces retake more western Mosul areas
An Iraqi special forces soldier fires as other soldiers runs across a street during a battle in Mosul, Iraq March 1, 2017. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic
The statement by the service said the airstrike on Shaarin marketplace in western Mosul killed six foreign members. Those included Abdul-Karim(Abu Samir) al-Rusi, a Russian leading the group’s so-called Rarek ibn Ziyad battalion. Another was Saleh (Abu Mahyaf) al-Ahmad, A Syrian-French.
Other leaders killed in the strike were Abu Duaa al-Mahgribi (Moroccan), Youssef (Abu Gamal) Awni (Turkish), Abdullah(Abu Saleh) Hammoud (Moroccan) and Milad (Abu Hafsa) Siro (Algerian-British).
The strike came as army forces recaptured more areas in western Mosul from IS militants, according to the Defense Ministry’s War Media Cell,. It quoted Lt. Gen. Abdul-Amir Yarallah, field commander of the Joint Operations Command, saying the forces took over a so-called “contaminated area”, a mill and a fuel station, but did not clarify how far were those facilities from central Mosul, where security forces pressed deeper over the past few days.
Yarallah also said the forces recaptured the Huwaidera village, near Badush region, northwest of Mosul.
Iraqi government forces recaptured eastern Mosul from IS in January after three months of fighting, and launched another offensive in February to retake the west.
Government forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition and allied paramilitary groups, have made remarkable achievements since February, retaking main government buildings, the city’s airport and a major military base. The troops have recently pushed deeper into the Old City, a densely-populated and -structured area which military officials view as central to the desired victory over IS militants.