MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi forces on Tuesday recaptured the main government building in Mosul, the central bank branch and the museum where three years ago the militants filmed themselves destroying priceless statues.

A Rapid Response team stormed the Nineveh governorate complex in an overnight raid that lasted more than an hour, killing dozens of Islamic State fighters, spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Abdel Amir al-Mohammadawi said.

The buildings, already in ruins, were not being used by Islamic State, but their capture is a landmark in the push to retake the militants’ last major stronghold in Iraq, now restricted to the heavy populated western half of Mosul.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi flew into to Mosul to visit the troops fighting to oust Islamic State from the city in which it declared its sprawling caliphate in 2014.

“Iraqis shall walk tall when the war is over,” Abadi told state TV as he arrived.

Islamic State snipers continued to fire at the main government building after it was stormed, restricting the movements of the soldiers, and forces pushing further into western Mosul came under rifle and rocket fire.

“The fighting is strong because most of them are foreigners and they have nowhere to go,” said the head of a sniper unit for the Rapid Response, al-Moqdadi al-Saeedi.

Some of Islamic State’s foreign fighters are trying to flee Mosul, U.S. Air Force Brigadier General Matthew Isler said.

“The game is up,” Isler told Reuters at the Qayyara West Airfield, south of the city. “They have lost this fight and what you’re seeing is a delaying action.”

Iraq’s Counter Terrorism Service (CTS), which spearheaded the assaults that won back east Mosul, was on Tuesday moving into the western half of the city, the final and trickiest battleground in the nearly five-month campaign due to the dense civilian population living in its narrow streets.

STREET BY STREET

The CTS forces had fought their way well into the Mansour neighborhood and were trying to advance street by street, sending heavy fire on IS sniper positions, a Reuters correspondent visiting the special forces’ front lines reported.

A disabled Iraqi girl who flees her home waits in a street for a truck to carry her to a safe place, as Iraqi forces battle with Islamic State militants, in western Mosul, Iraq March 7, 2017. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem

Federal Police units arrived at a house that CTS forces were stationed in but had to move out, one-by-one, to a neighboring building as IS rocket fire hit homes nearby.

One CTS operative on the ground said he thought it would take a few hours to retake Mansour, one of Mosul’s biggest neighborhoods which lies southwest of the old city and could serve as a base to advance into the historic center.

U.S. special forces were seen walking between buildings in the same area, some carrying assault rifles with scopes and silencers. Helicopters attacked targets just to the north and thick smoke filled the sky from various explosions.

Dozens of civilians streamed out of the Mamoun district toward the CTS troops as machinegun fire rang out in the background, adding to a wave of people displaced from Mosul that now numbers 211,000, 40,000 of whom fled last week alone, U.N. agencies say.

Some 750,000 people were estimated to live in west Mosul when the offensive began on Feb. 19.

Among the symbolic buildings retaken overnight was one that had served at Islamic State’s main court, known for sentences including stonings, throwing people off roofs and chopping off hands, reflecting the group’s hardline ideology.

The militants looted the central bank when they took over the city in 2014 and took videos of themselves destroying archaeological artifacts. Traffic in antiquities that abound in the territory under their control, from Palmyra in Syria to Nineveh in Iraq, was one of their main sources of income.

Slideshow (19 Images)

The number of Islamic State fighters in Mosul was estimated at 6,000 at the start of the offensive on Mosul on Oct. 17, by the Iraqi military which estimates that several thousands have been killed since.

Lined up against them is a 100,000-strong force of Iraqi troops, Kurdish peshmerga fighters and Iranian-trained Shi’ite Muslim paramilitary groups.</s>Elite Iraqi security forces dislodged Islamic State militants from the main government buildings in Mosul on Tuesday, their last major city stronghold in Iraq, an Iraqi spokesman said.

Mosul’s main museum, which was damaged and looted by the militants, was also taken, Lieutenant Colonel Abdel Amir al-Mohammadawi, a spokesman for the elite interior ministry Rapid Response units told Reuters.

A special Rapid Response team stormed the Nineveh governorate building and the surrounding government complex in an overnight raid that lasted about an hour, he said.

“They killed tens from Daesh,” he said, referring to the Islamic State group by one of its Arabic acronyms.

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Seizing the government complex would help Iraqi forces attack the militants in the nearby old city centre and mark a symbolic step towards restoring state authority over Mosul, even though the buildings are destroyed and not being used by Islamic State.

The battle for Mosul, which started on Oct. 17, will now enter a more complicated phase in the densely populated old city where, the Iraqi military believes, several thousand militants are among the remaining civilian population.

It was from the grand al-Nuri Mosque in the old city that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared in 2014 a “caliphate” spanning parts of Iraq and neighboring Syria.

The old city lies on the western bank of the Tigris river that cuts Mosul in two halves. About 750,000 people were estimated by aid organizations to live in west Mosul when the offensive started on this side of the city on Feb. 19.

The Iraqi forces took the eastern half of the city in January, after 100 days of fighting.

A U.S.-led coalition is providing key air and ground support to the offensive in Iraq’s second-largest city.</s>MOSUL, Iraq, March 7 (Reuters) - Iraqi government forces fighting to drive Islamic State from western Mosul on Tuesday recaptured the main government building, the central bank branch and the museum where three years ago the militants had smashed statues and artefacts.

The government buildings had been destroyed and were not used by Islamic State, but their capture still represented a symbolic victory in the battle over the militants' last major stronghold in Iraq.

An elite Rapid Response team stormed the Nineveh governorate building and government complex in an overnight raid, spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Abdel Amir al-Mohammadawi said.

They also seized a building that housed Islamic State's main court of justice, known for its harsh sentences, including stonings, throwing people off building roofs and chopping off hands, reflecting Islamic State's extreme ideology.

"They killed tens from Daesh," Mohammadawi said, referring to Islamic State by one of its Arabic acronyms. The raid took over an hour.

The militants looted the central bank when they took over the city in 2014 and took videos of themselves destroying statues and artifacts.

Illegal traffic in antiquities that abound in the territory under their control, from the sites of Palmyra in Syria to Nineveh in Iraq, was one of their main source of income.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi flew into to Mosul to visit the troops engaged in the fighting.

The breakthrough paves the way for the U.S.-backed forces to attack the militants in the old city of Mosul, the most complicated phase in the nearly five-month campaign due to the density of the population and the narrowness of the alleyways. The militants are dug in amongst civilians in the historic district.

It was from the Nuri Mosque in the old city that the group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, declared in 2014 a caliphate also spanning parts of neighboring Syria.

The old city lies on the western bank of the Tigris river that cuts Mosul in two. About 750,000 people were estimated by aid organizations to live in west Mosul when the offensive started on this side of the city on Feb. 19.

The Iraqi forces took the eastern half in January, after 100 days of fighting. They are backed by air and ground support from a U.S.-led coalition.

Defeating Islamic State in Mosul would crush the Iraqi wing of the self-declared caliphate, which also suffering setbacks in Syria.

U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces cut the last main road out of the Islamic State capital there, Raqqa, on Monday. Islamic State is also fighting off the Russian-backed Syrian army as well as and Turkey and allied Syrian rebels.

The number of Islamic State fighters in Mosul was estimated at 6,000 at the start of the offensive on Oct. 17, by the Iraqi military who estimate several thousands have been killed since.

Lined up against them is a 100,000-strong force of Iraqi troops, Kurdish peshmerga fighters and Iranian-trained Shi'ite Muslim paramilitary groups.

More than 40,000 people fled their homes in the past week, bringing the total number of displaced since the start of the offensive to more than 21,000, according to the United Nations.

Dozens more streamed out of the Mamoun district in southwestern Mosul toward U.S.-trained Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) troops as machinegunfire rang out in the background.

U.S. special forces were also seen walking betweeen buildings in the same area, some of them carrying assault rifles with scopes and silencers. Helicopters attacked targets just north of their positions as thick smoke filled the sky from various explosions.

Agencies say camps to accommodate them are nearly full even though the United Nations said last month that more than 400,000 people still in western Mosul could be displaced.

Several thousands have been killed and wounded in the fighting, both civilians and military, according to aid organizations. (Writing by Maher Chmaytell; Editing by Angus MacSwan)</s>Iraqi security forces have captured the main government buildings in western Mosul from the Islamic State group (IS), a senior Iraqi military commander says.

Lieutenant General Abdul-Amir Raheed Yar Allah said troops hoisted an Iraqi flag on the Nineveh government complex on Tuesday, hailing the federal police as "heroes".

He said the troops now controlled the western side of a second bridge across the Tigris River, known as Hurriyah Bridge.

Mosul's main museum, which was damaged and looted by the militants, was also seized by troops, according to Lieutenant Colonel Abdel Amir al-Mohammadawi, a spokesman for the elite Interior Ministry rapid response units.

"They killed tens from Daesh," he said, referring to IS by one of its Arabic acronyms.

The advance came more than two weeks since a new push to drive IS from Mosul, their last major city stronghold in Iraq.

The battle for Mosul will now enter a more complicated phase in the densely populated old city, where it is believed several thousand militants are among the remaining civilian population.

It was from the grand al-Nuri Mosque in the old city that IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared in 2014 a "caliphate" spanning parts of Iraq and neighbouring Syria.

The old city lies on the western bank of the Tigris river that cuts Mosul in two halves.

About 750,000 people were estimated by aid organisations to live in western Mosul when the offensive started on this side of the city on February 19.

Iraqi forces captured the eastern side of Mosul in January after 100 days of fighting.

A US-led coalition is providing key air and ground support to support the offensive, which started on October 17.</s>MOSUL, Iraq (AP) — U.S.-backed Iraqi forces were fighting their way through a government complex in the heart of western Mosul after storming the buildings in an overnight raid, and were facing fierce counterattacks Tuesday from the Islamic State group.

According to Lt. Gen. Abdul-Amir Rasheed Yar Allah, the troops hoisted an Iraqi flag on the complex of buildings in the Dawasa neighborhood earlier in the morning, hailing the federal police units who stormed the compound as heroes.

By noon, troops on the ground said the complex has not yet been fully secured and that they are battling a wave of intense IS counterattacks.

Sgt. Azam Ibrahim of the federal police was one of the first troops to storm the Mosul government complex. His unit then pulled back to a base on the edge of Mosul's Tayran neighborhood, saying the clashes were still underway at the complex later Tuesday.

"We were pulled back because we had killed and wounded," Ibrahim told The Associated Press. "The (Iraqi) forces there are surrounded, the Humvees cannot reach them, nor can the ambulances."

The consistent advance — more than two weeks since the new push started to clear Mosul's western side of IS militants — has been a major blow to the extremists who once controlled nearly a third of Iraq.

Iraqi forces declared eastern Mosul "fully liberated" in January after officially launching the operation to retake the city in October

Yar Allah, who commands the army operations in Ninevah province, where Mosul is the provincial capital, said the troops now also control the western side of a second bridge across the Tigris River, known as the Hurriyah Bridge.

Last week, the troops reached the first bridge from the south in western Mosul, known locally as the 4th Bridge. U.S.-led airstrikes disabled all of Mosul's five bridges last year in a bid to isolate the militants.

Hours after announcing Tuesday's advance, Iraqi state TV said Prime Minster Haider al-Abadi visited the troops in Mosul. Al-Abadi was shown descending from a military plane at the city's airport and meeting with senior military officers. It was unclear if al-Abadi visited the western part of Mosul.

"They have two choices, first either they surrender and they will have fair trial and the second choice they will be killed," al-Abadi told reporters in Mosul as he was clad in a black counterterrorism forces uniform. "Some are escaping but even the escape path is closed and they have no hope, so that is why they should surrender."

He called upon Mosul residents to cooperate with the security forces, vowing to rebuild their city and to restore services.

Private broadcaster Lebanon-based Al-Mayadeen aired live footage from inside western Mosul, with thick black smoke rising from different areas as gunfire rattled. The TV footage also showed what it said were explosions from two suicide attacks carried out by IS militants against the security forces.

The footage also shows the city's iconic 840-year-old "Crooked Minaret," which leans somewhat like Italy's Tower of Pisa.

Unlike other heritage and archaeological sites in and around Mosul, the Islamic State militants couldn't destroy it as residents formed a human chain around it to protect it when they came to blow it up.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, the United Nations said that by Sunday, it had registered that about 42,000 people fled their homes in western Mosul since the start of the operation last month. The U.N. Office for Humanitarian Coordination, OCHA, said in a statement that 13,350 people fled to government-run areas in one day alone.

The troops expect to encounter far more fleeing civilians once they enter deeper into the more densely populated part of the city. The U.N. estimates that about 750,000 civilians are still trapped in their houses on Mosul's western side.

Mosul is Iraq's second-largest city, and its western half — the Tigris divides the city into an eastern and a western sections — is the last significant urban area held by IS in the country. Mosul fell to IS in the summer of 2014, along with large swaths of northern and western Iraq.</s>Elite Iraqi security forces dislodged Islamic State militants from the main government building in Mosul on Tuesday, their last major city stronghold in Iraq, an Iraqi spokesman said.

A special Rapid Response team stormed the Nineveh governorate building and the surrounding government complex in an overnight operation, Lieutenant Colonel Abdel Amir al-Mohammadawi, a spokesman for the elite interior ministry unit, told Reuters.

“They killed tens from Daesh,” he said, referring to the Islamic State group by one of its Arabic acronyms.

Recapturing the site would help Iraqi forces attack the militants in the nearby old city centre and mark a symbolic step towards restoring state authority over Mosul, even though the buildings are destroyed and not being used by Islamic State.</s>Iraqi military forces raised the nation's flag over government buildings in western Mosul on Tuesday before fending off a withering counterattack from Islamic State insurgents being driven from a crucial stronghold.

Still, the government offensive was the latest in a series of recent gains that have increased pressure on the militants, who took the city by storm three years ago.

Iraq’s elite Rapid Response force and the federal police liberated the governor’s building, Lt. Gen. Abdul Amir Yar Allah said in a statement. The Federal Police command told the Iraqi News service that government forces took over the water and sewage department’s offices in western Mosul’s district of Dindan, hoisting Iraqi flags above the facility. The command said the forces also recaptured the police directorate and the courts complex.



 Colonel John Dorrian, spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition supporting the advance, said he was encouraged by the Iraqi gains.

"Iraqi security forces are moving very rapidly right now," he told Iraq's Rudaw news service. "The enemy is not able to stop their advances."

Iraqi Maj. Gen. Najeem al-Jabbouri said government forces are now in control of both ends of two of the five bridges in Mosul, all “disabled” by coalition airstrikes. The government requested the bombings to discourage militants from crossing over to eastern Mosul, an area liberated in January. Jabbouri estimated fewer than 900 militants remain in Mosul.

Dorrian said the only capability the militants have used with success is drone attacks, a practice he said was in decline. Jabbouri credited a U.S.-supplied "interference machine" with paralyzing Islamic State's drone warfare.

"The Americans have brought in a very advanced machine to the right bank of Mosul," Jabbouri told Rudaw. "ISIS can no longer send even one drone into the sky."

Intense fighting marked Tuesday's battle for control of Mosul's government buildings, however. Sgt. Azam Ibrahim told the Associated Press that his federal police unit was one of the first troops to storm the Mosul government complex. His unit then pulled back to a base on the edge of Mosul’s Tayran neighborhood, and the clashes were still underway at the complex later Tuesday.

“We were pulled back because we had killed and wounded,” Ibrahim said. “The (Iraqi) forces there are surrounded, the Humvees cannot reach them, nor can the ambulances.”

The humanitarian emergency has continued to expand. The U.N. Office for Humanitarian Coordination said 42,000 people were displaced in the week that ended Sunday. It's the highest number since the assault to retake Mosul began last fall. The office said 13,350 people were displaced on March 3 alone. The U.N. estimates about 750,000 civilians remain trapped in their western Mosul homes.

Mosul is Iraq's second-largest city and was the last major urban center controlled by the Islamic State. The militants remain in control of scattered sections of rural Iraq as well as areas of war-torn Syria.</s>Iraqi forces have recaptured three neighbourhoods in their offensive to wrestle contol of West Mosul from the Islamic State (IS) group (AFP Photo/ARIS MESSINIS)

Mosul (Iraq) (AFP) - Iraqi forces said Tuesday they had seized the main government offices in Mosul and its famed museum as they made steady progress in their battle to retake the city's west from jihadists.

The advances, which also included the recapture of three neighbourhoods, were announced on the third day of a renewed offensive against the Islamic State group in west Mosul -- the largest remaining urban stronghold in the "caliphate" IS declared in 2014.

Supported by the US-led coalition bombing IS in Iraq and Syria, Iraqi forces began their push against west Mosul on February 19. The advance slowed during several days of bad weather but was renewed on Sunday.

The latest gains have brought government forces closer to Mosul's densely populated Old City, where hundreds of thousands of civilians are believed to still be trapped under jihadist rule.

Iraq's Joint Operations Command (JOC) said federal police and the elite Rapid Response Division had been able to "liberate" the Nineveh provincial government headquarters.

They also seized control of the Al-Hurriyah bridgehead, it said, in a step towards potentially relinking west Mosul with the city's east, which government forces seized earlier in the offensive.

All the bridges crossing the Tigris in Mosul have been damaged or destroyed, and Iraqi forces would either have to repair them or instal floating bridges to reconnect the two banks of the river dividing the city.

Officers said Tuesday security forces had also managed to recapture the Mosul museum, where the jihadists destroyed priceless artefacts, releasing a video of their rampage in February 2015.

The video showed militants at the museum knocking statues off their plinths and smashing them to pieces. A jackhammer was also used to deface a large Assyrian winged bull at an archaeological site in the city.

"Rapid Response entered the museum... there is nothing there," Lieutenant Colonel Abdulamir al-Mohammedawi said.

The jihadists' attacks on ancient heritage in Iraq and Syria have sparked widespread international outrage and fears for some of the world's most precious archaeological sites.

The museum was on a police list released Tuesday of sites recaptured from IS, which also included Mosul's central bank building, which the jihadists looted along with other banks in 2014, seizing tens of millions of dollars.

The JOC also announced Tuesday that Iraqi forces had regained complete control of the west Mosul neighbourhoods of Al-Dawasa, Al-Danadan and Tal al-Ruman, and were advancing against the jihadists in other areas.

In Al-Danadan, streets were left strewn with rubble and windows were blown out of many houses.

"There were mortar rounds falling on us, they fell on the roof and in the courtyard," said Manhal, a 28-year-old resident.

The fighting in west Mosul has forced more than 51,000 people to flee their homes, according to the International Organization for Migration.

But the number who have fled is still just a fraction of the 750,000 people believed to have stayed on in west Mosul under IS rule.

Emerging from the chaos of the civil war in neighbouring Syria, IS seized control of large parts of Syria and Iraq in mid-2014, declaring its Islamic "caliphate" and committing widespread atrocities.

The US-led coalition launched air strikes against the jihadists in both countries several months later, and has backed both Iraqi forces and fighters in Syria battling IS.

The jihadists have been pushed from most of the territory they once seized but still control key bastions including west Mosul and the caliphate's de facto Syrian capital Raqa.

In Syria, they have faced offensives by three rival forces.

Turkish troops and their Syrian rebel allies have pushed south from the Turkish border and driven IS out of the northern town of Al-Bab.

Syrian government troops have driven east from second city Aleppo with Russian support and seized a swathe of countryside from the jihadists.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor of the conflict, said Tuesday regime forces had recaptured a key water pumping station that supplies water to second city Aleppo.

"Regime forces took over the area of Al-Khafsa and seized the water-pumping station after the withdrawal of the IS jihadists," it said.

Thousands of civilians have fled Al-Khafsa for Manbij since Monday, said a source in the Manbij Military Council. A Syrian military source quoted by state media said the army continued its advance to "restore security and stability to Al-Khafsa" and surrounding towns. A US-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters has been advancing on Raqa, and on Monday reached the Euphrates River cutting the main road to the partly IS-held city of Deir Ezzor downstream. World powers have vowed increased cooperation in tackling the global threat from IS, which from its base in Syria and Iraq has organised or inspired a series of deadly attacks in foreign cities. Turkish, Russian and US military chiefs held talks on Tuesday in the southern Turkish city of Antalya on issues including cooperation in Iraq and Syria. Meanwhile, the White House said it will host Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in Washington later this month.</s>Irbil, Iraq (CNN) Iraqi forces have taken control of several key government buildings and a bridge in western Mosul.

Among the buildings re-captured from ISIS on Monday were the Mosul Museum , the judicial government complex and the Nineveh police directorate building, Abdel Amir al-Mohamadi, Commander of the Rapid Response Forces of the Iraqi Federal Police, told CNN.

The supreme court, central bank and electricity and water authority headquarters were also re-taken.

Smoke rises following an airstrike in western Mosul during the offensive Monday.

It is the first time these buildings have been under Iraqi government control since 2014. Located in a strategic area, the recaptured buildings will provide better access to Mosul's old city, which forces are seeking to recapture.

"The Mosul museum is completely destroyed and leveled to the ground. ISIS militants have looted and destroyed the museum artifacts and have rigged explosives around the buildings and leveled it to the ground," al-Mohamadi told CNN.

The offensive to retake Mosul, Iraq's second most populous city, began in October 2016.

Divided into east and west by the Tigris river, the forces are now in the second phase, launched on February 19, to clear militants from the west, having liberated the east in January.

Iraqi forces also captured the the Al-Huriya bridge on Monday, the second of five bridges across the Tigris to be seized from ISIS control, according to Iraqi federal police.

In February, the International Rescue Committee warned this part of the operation to retake Mosul could be the "most dangerous phase" for civilians as Iraqi troops seek to secure densely populated areas amid ISIS resistance.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Iraq's Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces arrived in Mosul Tuesday to inspect the ground forces that won back the government area on Monday, according to a statement from the Iraqi Prime Minister's office.</s>Iraqi security forces advance during fighting against Islamic State militants, in western Mosul, Iraq, Monday, March 6, 2017.

BAGHDAD — A senior Iraqi military commander says troops have captured the government complex in western Mosul from the Islamic State group.

The advance comes more than two weeks since the new push started to clear the city's western side of IS.

Lt. Gen. Abdul-Amir Raheed Yar Allah says troops hoisted an Iraqi flag on the buildings in the Dawasa neighborhood on Tuesday, hailing the federal police as "heroes."

Yar Allah commands army operations in Ninevah, where Mosul is the provincial capital.

He says the troops also control the western side of a second bridge across the Tigris River.

U.S.-led airstrikes disabled Mosul's five bridges last year in a bid to isolate the militants. Iraq declared eastern Mosul "fully liberated" last month but the militants have carried out attacks there since then.
The Iraqi Army retakes Mosul Museum as well as the main government building in Mosul.