Daesh mortar attack leaves 16 Iraqi civilians dead in Mosul

At least 16 civilians have lost their lives in a mortar attack by members of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group on residential neighborhoods in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, which government forces and allied fighters are trying to recapture from the militants.

Iraqi military and hospital officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the civilians were killed when several mortar shells fired by Takfiri terrorists struck areas across the city, located some 400 kilometers north of the capital, Baghdad, overnight and early on Saturday.

The bodies of the victims have been brought to military hospitals in eastern Mosul, the officials added.

Separately, the Iraqi Federal Police announced in a statement that security forces had liberated Um al-Masaed village, which lies southwest of Mosul, from the grip of Daesh Takfiris, and wrested control over the road linking Mosul to the nearby city of Tal Afar.

Iraq’s Joint Operations Command (JOC) also reported that soldiers from the 9th Armored Division retook the village of Jeliokhan, situated 10 km southeast of Mosul, from Daesh on Saturday.

Moreover, an armed CASC Rainbow drone of the Iraqi army targeted and destroyed a car rigged with some 200 improvised explosive devices in al-Zawiyah village south of Mosul.

The vehicle had been parked close to a militant hideout, which accommodated a bomb-making workshop. The force of the explosion reduced the building to a pile of debris.

Pro-government fighters from Popular Mobilization Units, better known by the Arabic name al-Hashd al-Shaabi, also recaptured the village of al-Baynounah, south of Tal Afar, on Saturday, following fierce skirmishes with Daesh terrorists. An unspecified number of the extremists were reportedly killed during the gun battle.

Later in the day, Hashd al-Shaabi forces wrested control over al-Ajbouri and al-Fotsah villages west of Tal Afar, located 63 km west of Mosul, after they engaged pockets of Daesh terrorists there.

SS