Source: Asia Times
Islamic State fighters are putting up stiff resistance as Iraqi forces launched a third front in the offensive to take back Mosul. The group has unleashed suicide bombers and left a trail of booby traps, according to Al Jazeera and other media reports.
Iraq said that on Thursday its soldiers advanced from the south and east on the country’s second-largest city, while Kurdish Peshmerga fighters moved in from the north and east, Al Jazeera reported. Special forces entered the town of Bartella, 15 kilometers east of Mosul.
Major-General Fadhil Barwari told the news network that ISIS had few defenses in the predominantly Christian town, which was almost completely empty of civilians. “They just left some snipers and suicide car bombs,” he said.