Iranian commander killed fighting IS near Mosul – Iraq
Iraq’s government has urged residents in militant-held areas of Mosul to flee immediately.
A senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander has been killed in an explosion during clashes with the Islamic State group west of Mosul, an Iraqi official said.
The news came as aid groups voiced concern for the safety of civilians after Iraq’s government called for residents in militant-held neighbourhoods of the city to flee immediately.
General Shaaban Nasiiri was an adviser to Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force. Mr Soleimani has acted as a key adviser to Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces – an umbrella group of mostly Shiite militia forces sanctioned by the Iraqi government – in the fight against IS since 2014. The Iraqi official said Gen Nasiiri was killed on Friday and is the first senior Iranian commander to die in the Mosul fight.
Inside Mosul, US-backed Iraqi forces began the push to retake the Old City on Saturday morning, moving in on the district from three directions, according to a statement from Nineveh operations command, the authority overseeing the Mosul fight.
The IS hold on Mosul has shrunk to just a handful of neighbourhoods in and around the Old City district where narrow streets and a dense civilian population is expected to complicate the fight there. Iraqi planes dropped leaflets over the area on Friday telling civilians to flee “immediately” to “safe passages” where they will be greeted by “guides, protectors and (transportation) to reach safe places”, according to a government statement.
However, it is unclear how the government intends to ensure safe passage for civilians as IS fighters have repeatedly targeted fleeing civilians with small arms and mortar fire.
The move to clear the Old City marks a shift in approach. Since the Mosul operation was launched in October, Iraqi forces have encouraged civilians to remain in their homes to avoid massive displacement. However, more than 730,000 people have fled the fight to date, according to United Nations figures.
“As many as 200,000 additional people may try to leave in coming days,” the UN said in a statement on Saturday following the call for Old City civilians to leave. Save the Children warned on Friday that fleeing civilians could be caught in the crossfire, leading to “deadly chaos”. Both Iraqi forces and IS fighters are obligated under international law to protect civilians, the UN statement added.
More than 100,000 civilians are estimated to still be inside IS-held Mosul neighbourhoods.
While US-backed forces have fought inside Mosul during the operation to retake it from IS, Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces have largely operated in the deserts to the west ,cutting supply lines and attempting to begin securing Iraq’s border with Syria.
While some Iraqi commanders said they hoped to retake the city before Ramadan, the Muslim holy month which began on Friday night, gruelling urban combat has repeatedly slowed the pace of operations.
