Southern front lines stalled for weeks in west Mosul
Car bomb attacks have diminished as Iraqi forces are narrowing in on the remaining areas under Islamic State control in the city, but suicide bombers and snipers continue to claim victims among Iraqi forces holding defensive positions.
MOSUL, Iraq — Following the fall of the Ma’amil neighborhood in west Mosul to the Iraqi forces May 10, “only 15 neighborhoods remained under control of IS [the Islamic State] in Mosul, all of which are surrounded by the Iraqi forces,” said Bashar al-Kiki, the head of the Ninevah Provincial Council. In order to manage the liberation of the remaining areas, the Iraqi joint forces announced a plan to divide the areas into different parts, each of which has been assigned to specific forces.
In the area of Bab al-Jadid in west Mosul, which is held by the federal police, suicide attackers infiltrated the front line April 28 and one killed a staff colonel in charge of the area before blowing himself up, Col. Mohammad Hussein Salman told Al-Monitor two days later in an interview at the site of the attack.
The officer killed, Staff Col. Khidher Abdulmahdi, left behind several children, including an infant who had been born while he was at the front and whom he had not yet seen, Salman, a deputy brigade commander, said.
“Suicide bombers usually shoot at you and then throw hand grenades, and then they blow themselves up when you try to catch them,” Salman added, stressing that this time the attacker had infiltrated the defense line in the predawn hours and targeted the staff colonel from inside a former shop.
