CLOSE-QUARTERS FIGHTING
Iraqis move on landmark Mosul mosque
Thousands of residents flee from Islamic State-held areas inside Mosul, the militants’ biggest remaining stronghold in Iraq
Mosul — Iraqi special forces and police fought Islamic State (IS) militants to edge closer to the al-Nuri mosque in western Mosul on Wednesday, tightening their control around the landmark site in the battle to recapture Iraq’s second city. The close-quarters fighting is focused on the Old City surrounding the mosque, where IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed a caliphate nearly three years ago across territory controlled by the group in both Iraq and Syria. Thousands of residents have fled from IS-held areas inside Mosul, the militants’ biggest remaining stronghold in Iraq. But tens of thousands more are still trapped inside homes, caught in the fighting as Iraqi forces backed by a US-led coalition advance in the west. Helicopters circling west Mosul strafed IS positions beyond the city train station, the site of heavy back-and-forth fighting in recent days, and thick black smoke rose into the sky, Reuters reporters on the ground said.Heavy sustained gunfire could be heard fro...
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