Iraqi troops have entered the Karama district of the city of Mosul, the first advance into the Isis stronghold following two weeks of slow but steady advances by US-backed coalition forces.
An Iraqi army official said the elite Counter Terrorism Service had managed to enter the city’s outskirts on Monday and was moving in on Gogjali, an industrial zone about a kilometre away from Mosul’s administrative border.
Iraqi forces have been edging closer to the huge Isis-controlled city over two weeks of fighting, retaking militant-held villages on the Nineveh Plain on four different fronts despite counterattacks on other cities and the use of suicide bombs and landmines by Isis.
“The operation to liberate the left bank of Mosul has started,” a military statement said, referring to the eastern bank of the river that flows through the north to the south of the city.
Elsewhere in the battle on Monday, Kurdish Peshmerga forces made gains to the north, clearing five villages of Isis fighters.
Iran-backed Shiite militias have also joined the assault over the weekend, pushing to just three miles (five kilometres) south of the city since Saturday.
“The battle of Mosul will not be a picnic,” Hadi al-Amiri, leader of the Badr Organisation, the largest Shi'ite militia fighting with Iraqi government forces, said from the southern frontline.
“We are prepared… even if it lasts for months.”
Defeat in Mosul will effectively spell the end of Isis as a land-holding force in Iraq, and is expected to send fighters retreating to Isis’ de facto capital of Raqqa in northern Syria.
Aid groups are worried about the potential consequences for Mosul’s 1.5million strong civilian population who are at risk because of the fighting. Reports cited by the UN say that hundreds of people have been executed or taken as human shields as Isis digs in for the final battle to defend the city.
The loss of Iraq’s second-biggest city would be a significant blow to the group, although experts warn it will not mean total defeat: many analysts expect the extremists' battle to wage on in the form of a global insurgency.
