- Title: Iraq slows advance on last IS pocket in Mosul
- Date: 4th July 2017
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) YASSIR ABBAS NAJI, EXPLOSIVES EXPERT, FEDERAL POLICE FORCE, SAYING: "We will announce good news to the Iraqi people, God willing. Daesh (Islamic State) fighters have started to drop their weapons and flee. Yesterday we captured four or five (Islamic State fighters) who were trying to flee among civilians. We are now monitoring their movements by drones and we saw them dropping their weapons and fleeing. Now, about six or seven fighters are walking towards us and we are waiting for them to arrive. God willing, we will break the good news to the Iraqi people very soon." GROUP OF FEDERAL POLICE POSING WITH SEIZED ISLAMIC STATE BANNER FEDERAL POLICE MEMBERS WALKING THROUGH DAMAGED HOUSES VARIOUS OF FEDERAL POLICE OFFICERS WALKING THROUGH HOLE IN WALL OF BUILDING GROUP OF FEDERAL POLICE OFFICERS WALKING ALONG NARROW ALLEYWAY FULL OF RUBBLE AND WRECKAGE FEDERAL POLICE STANDING AMONGST RUBBLE AND FIRING MACHINE-GUN GROUP OF FEDERAL POLICE SITTING ON TOP OF MOVING HUMVEE MAKING "V" SIGN HUMVEE DRIVING BY DAMAGED HOUSES WITH GROUP OF FEDERAL POLICE ON TOP / AUDIO OF GUNFIRE STREET STREWN WITH RUBBLE / DAMAGED BUILDINGS / MILITARY HUMVEES PARKED AT FAR END WITH SMOKE RISING BEHIND BUILDINGS
- Embargoed: 18th July 2017 13:24
- Keywords: Fight for Mosul Islamic State cornered Federal Police firing guns rubble in Old City
- Location: OLD CITY, MOSUL, IRAQ
- City: OLD CITY, MOSUL, IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Military Conflicts
- Reuters ID: LVA0036OAYHQF
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Iraqi forces slowed their advance on Tuesday (July 4) through the last streets in Mosul controlled by Islamic State where militants and civilians are packed in densely together, a commander said.
While Iraqi commanders predicted final victory in Mosul this week, U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces announced they had begun an assault on Islamic State's Syrian redoubt in the Old City of Raqqa.
The Iraqi military has pushed insurgents into a shrinking rectangle no more than 300 by 500 metres beside the Tigris river in Mosul; but the resistance has been fierce.
A commander from the Rapid Response Division, an elite Interior Ministry unit, estimated more than 10,000 civilians remained trapped inside the area under militant control, including people brought from other areas as human shields. They are trapped with little food, water or medicine amid the Old City's maze of narrow alleyways, according to residents who have managed to escape. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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