Contact Admin. But the losses endured over eight months of fighting, three years of IS rule in Mosul and more than a decade of constant extremist attacks, he observes, make the coming milestone more sad than celebratory.
As he speaks, airstrikes pound IS targets, and militants lob mortars and snap off sniper fire. Soldiers battle house to house, and families continue to flee the fighting. Under the piles of rubble are the remains of families killed when houses collapsed in airstrikes, sometimes burying them alive. I want to go home. Militants continue hiding out in Iraqi-controlled territory, poised to strike again.
And the terrain around Tal Afar is so rough that it is impossible to completely secure, added Katam. Militants fleeing other areas will finally retreat to the city if they can. Last week three suicide bombers targeted eastern Mosul, killing and maiming people in a market.
Early this week, 40 to 50 militants believed to be hiding out in an abandoned industrial zone overran two neighborhoods of western Mosul in an apparent attempt to distract Iraqi forces from their battle in Old Mosul. The blood is still sticky, and two bullet shells are on the floor. Mohammad thinks it was an IS double execution. Returning neighbors say there was pandemonium when IS showed up in an area controlled by Iraq since mid-April.
Families were separated as everyone ran when they saw the bushy beards and traditional clothes. Soldiers and civilians agree, however, that more sleeper cells are hiding out all over Mosul and that attacks are far from over.
