Iraqi army begins Mosul offensive against Islamic State

Iraq’s armed forces launched an offensive on Thursday claimed to be the first stage of an the operation to push Islamic State (Isis) out of Mosul, the largest city under its control.

The assault was launched from the Makhmour area of Nineveh province, where thousands of Iraqi troops have deployed in recent weeks, setting up bases alongside Kurdish and US forces.

Backed by air power from a US-led coalition and by Kurdish peshmerga forces, Iraqi troops advanced westwards, recapturing several villages from Isis, according to multiple military sources.

“The first phase of the Fatah (“Conquest”) Operation has been launched at dawn to liberate Nineveh, raising the Iraqi flag in several villages,” said a military statement cited by state TV.

Iraqi officials say they will retake Mosul this year but, in private, many question whether the army, which partially collapsed when Isis overran a third of the country in June 2014, will be ready in time.

The city, home to 2 million people before being taken over by the militant group, is by far the largest centre it controls in either Iraq or Syria and is heavily populated, complicating efforts to retake it.

The military statement urged civilians to stay away from buildings used by the insurgents, warning they would be targeted in days to come. “Iraqi security forces in Makhmour ... are beginning to expand the forward line of troops,” said Col Steve Warren, a Baghdad-based spokesman for the US-led coalition.

Makhmour is located in a strategic triangle of territory between Isis’s core area of control in northwestern Iraq and the Hawija area, from which the militants have threatened oil installations around Kirkuk.

Thursday’s advance brings Iraqi forces closer to the oil town of Qayyara on the banks of the river Tigris, control over which would help to isolate Hawija from Mosul.

A Shia militia leader met Kurdish peshmerga commanders last week to discuss plans to push the insurgents out of the Hawija area together with the Iraqi army.

The offensive should also reduce the threat to the base in Makhmour, which has come under repeated attack from Isis, resulting in the death of a US Marine last week.

The Iraqi military statement named the villages recaptured as al-Nasr, Garmandi, Kudila and Khurburdan.