Iraqi forces advance in Mosul

Nation executes airstrikes on ISIS just across border in Syria

Federal police bomb Islamic State positions Friday as Iraqi security forces take over the international airport in Mosul.
Federal police bomb Islamic State positions Friday as Iraqi security forces take over the international airport in Mosul.

MOSUL AIRPORT, Iraq -- As Iraqi ground troops pushed into western Mosul on Friday, the country's air force struck Islamic State targets inside Syria for the first time in response to recent bombings in Baghdad claimed by the militants.

Meanwhile, at least 60 people were killed in Islamic State attacks near a key northern Syrian town captured only a day earlier from the extremist group by Turkish forces and their Syrian opposition allies.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the Iraqi airstrikes in Syria in a statement, saying the border towns of Boukamal and Husseibah were targeted in response to recent bombings in Baghdad linked to Islamic State operations there.

Iraqi forces closely supported by the U.S.-led international coalition pushed into the first neighborhood of western Mosul and took full control of the city's international airport and a sprawling military base on the southwestern edge of the city, Iraqi officials said.

The territorial gains were the most significant yet in the battle, now in its sixth day, to rout Islamic State militants from the western half of Iraq's second-largest city.

As Iraqi warplanes struck Islamic State targets across the border, militants in northern Syria staged a suicide car bomb attack outside a security office operated by the Syrian opposition in a village 5 miles north of al-Bab, killing at least 60 people. Al-Bab had been controlled by the Islamic State since late 2013, but the militants retreated Thursday after more than two months of intense fighting.

Most of those killed in the village of Sousian were civilians awaiting permits and an escort to return to al-Bab, a Syrian military commander in the city said. At least six fighters were among those killed in the attack, according to Turkey's prime minister, who spoke in Ankara.

Hours after the first explosion in Sousian, another car bomb attack was reported in the village, killing at least eight people, according to activist groups. There were no further details on the attack, and the Aleppo Media Center later took down the report.

An additional explosion was reported south of al-Bab, where two Turkish soldiers were killed when an explosive device went off as they were removing land mines, Turkey's military said. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights corroborated the report, saying the explosives detonated near Tadif, an Islamic State-controlled town south of al-Bab. Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, however, called the explosion a "suicide attack." It was not immediately possible to reconcile the accounts.

In Mosul, meanwhile, Iraqi forces pushed into the Mamun neighborhood and engaged in intense clashes with the Islamic State militants, according to an Iraqi special forces officer on the ground, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Federal police Maj. Gen. Haider al-Maturi said his forces pushed through concrete roadblocks and earthen berms set up by the Islamic State group, and succeeded in capturing around 30 percent of the Aviation District, the first district entering Mosul's western perimeter from the south.

"There were fierce clashes. We faced car bombs, suicide attackers and mortar shelling," al-Maturi said. "The battle ahead will be difficult and complicated because of the civilians around. It'll be street fights."

Al-Maturi said six Iraqi troops were wounded, including two officers. A Canadian medic volunteering at a front-line clinic said he had treated at least 10 wounded federal policemen. Iraq's military does not release official casualty figures.

Earlier Friday, the spokesman of the Joint Military Operation Command, Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool, said Iraqi forces had also retaken the military base adjacent to the airport.

The advances came a day after special forces joined the fight for western Mosul.

Both the Ghazlani military base and the airport will be key to the next steps in the daunting battle and will serve as a base of operations as Iraqi forces launch subsequent pushes into western Mosul, which is divided by the Tigris River into two halves.

Iraqi authorities declared the city's eastern half "fully liberated" from the Sunni militants in January, three months after launching the operation to take back Mosul.

A Section on 02/25/2017

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