International Coalition targets ISIS at Beji district

International Coalition’s fighter jets carried out 15 air raids on targets related to ISIS extremist group in both Iraq and Syria, as the Popular Mobilization Forces managed to prevent elements of the extremist group from infiltrating to areas controlled by the governmental troops in Salahuddin Province.
According to central command of International Coalition, the fighter jets carried out seven raids against the strongholds of the extremist group in Syria near the cities of Raqqa and Palmyra. It added that they also targeted the group’s sites in Iraq in different places, including Qaem, Beji, Mousl and Telaffar.
The Iraqi Federal Police command has reiterated it was “very close” to a strategic mosque in western Mousl , proceeding with operations to clear the region from Islamic State militants. The service’s leader, Abdel Wahab Helali, said in a statement on Sunday that his forces were very close to the Grand Nuri Mosque in Old Mosul, another primary target for Iraqi security forces seeking to eradicate IS from western Mosul since February.

“Federal Police troops have become very close to liberating al-Hadbaa Minaret, the second most important strategic target in western Mosul after the liberated government buildings,” Helali said.
The Nuri Mosque was the location where IS supreme leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi delivered his famous sermon in 2014 to declare the establishment of a self-styled “Islamic Caliphate” in Iraq, appointing himself as a Caliph “ruler” of the proclaimed state.
Helali added that his forces, advancing towards the mosque, killed tens of militants and destroyed 23 booby-trapped vehicles. Iraqi government forces recaptured eastern Mosul from IS in January after three months of fighting, and launched a second offensive in February to retake the western region.
Forces have made remarkable achievements since February, retaking main government buildings, the city’s airport and a major military base. The troops have recently pushed deeper into the Old City, a densely-populated and -structured area which military officials view as central to the desired victory over IS militants.
According to military sources, anti-extremism troops clashed with the extremist elements in the southern side of Mousl, as they managed to kill a number of extremist elements and injured others during the clashes.
Thousands of Iraqis surged out of western Mosul on Saturday during a lull in heavy fighting in districts around the densely populated Old City where Iraqi forces are facing fierce resistance from Islamic State militants.
Five months into the battle to take Islamic State’s last bastion in Iraq, government forces have cleared the east and half of western Mosul, and are now focused on controlling the Old City as well as the strategic al-Nuri Mosque.