Civilians to be evacuated ahead of launching wide operations in Mosul, IS leaders killed: Commander
The Great Mosque of al-Nuri.
Federal police chief Lieutenant General Raed Shaker Jawdat said in a statement that ground operations carried out by federal police supported by aircrafts and artillery are ongoing against Islamic State militants.
The slow advances toward the Grand Nuri al-Kabir Mosque is ongoing, he added.
The strategic mosque is famous for being the place where Islamic State supreme leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed the Islamic State’s self-styled “Islamic Caliphate” in Iraq and Syria in 2014.
More than 1500 families were evacuated last week according to Jawdat who said that troops were encircling the Old City from three directions and that safe exits were being opened for civilians before the troops advance towards it.
In related news, IS leader and six of his assistants were killed on Tuesday in a shelling in west of Mosul.
Federal Police jets supported by the artillery, according to Jawdat, killed IS leaders including Abu Muhajir al-Rusi, and six of his assistants in a direct strike against their headquarters at the medical center near the republic hospital in the Old City.
Retaking the mosque would represent a major symbolic blow to the extremist group which has lost most of territories it held in Mosul since the beginning of the security campaign in October.
Iraqi troops took over eastern Mosul in January and launched a new offensive to take the western region in February. Retaking the Old City could ruin the group’s “Islamic Caliphate”.