MOSUL: US-backed Iraqi forces pushed deeper into western Mosul on Sunday, aiming to capture a bridge across the Tigris which would link the city’s government-held eastern bank with the ongoing offensive agai­nst remaining militants in the west.

The bridge is the southernmost of five bridges spanning the Tigris. All were damaged in strikes by the US-led air coalition, and later by fighters trying to seal off the western bank still under their control.

“The bridge is very important,” Colonel Falah al-Wabdan of the Interior Ministry’s Rapid Response unit, one of the two main forces spearheading the campaign in western Mosul, said. “The bridge is about 400 metres away. By the end of the day you will hear that our forces have arrived (there).” Army engineers plan to rehabilitate the bridge to allow troops to bring in reinforcements and supplies directly from the eastern side, he said.

Iraqi forces captured eastern Mosul in January, after 100 days of fighting. They launched their attack on the districts that lie west of the Tigris a week ago.

If they defeat the militant Islamic State group in Mosul, that would crush the Iraq wing of the caliphate that the group’s leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared in 2014 over parts of Iraq and neighbouring Syria. The US commander in Iraq has said he believes US-backed for­ces will recapture both Mo­sul and Raqqa - IS’s Syria stronghold — within six months.

Army, police, and elite Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) and Rapid Response units forces are attacking IS in west Mosul, with air and ground support from the US-led coalition, including artillery fire. US personnel are operating close to the frontlines to direct air strikes.

Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2017