Three civilians killed as IS drones bomb eastern Mosul market

Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Three grocers died Wednesday and four others were wounded when a drone guided by Islamic State militants dropped two rockets on a marketplace in eastern Mosul.

Anadolu Agency quoted Birg. Gen. Rakan al-Ameri, from the army’s Counter-Terrorism Forces, as saying that the drones targeted a popular market in Nabi Yunus district, one neighborhood retaken during security campaigns that launched in October.

He said the group had made use of inability to address what he described as a “security gap” in areas recaptures by security forces from Islamic State militants.

Since Iraqi government troops became in control of eastern Mosul late January, IS fighters, who fled to strongholds in the west, waged occasional attacks on the liberated areas in the east, either by fighters crossing from the west via the Tigris River or by sending bomb-supplied drones. Militants, some security personnel and civilians were killed in those attacks.

Government troops are awaiting orders from the supreme command to invade the west, with the generals occasionally reiterating that combat plans were ready for the next move.
Consummating the recapture of Mosul would represent the biggest blow to the group which still, however, maintains smaller hideouts in Anbar, Salahuddin and Kirkuk