Major Islamic State counterattack in Mosul pushes back Iraqi army forces

A major Islamic State group counterattack Friday along the northern edge of Mosul’s Old City neighborhood has pushed Iraqi army forces back about 82 yards and is threatening recent gains along other Old City fronts, an Iraqi military officer said.

The officer said the attack was launched just after noon Friday and estimated that it was carried out by 50 to 100 Islamic State fighters. A doctor at a medic station said he received more than a dozen wounded Iraqi soldiers.

Both men spoke on condition of anonymity, in line with regulations.

Iraqi security forces have retaken almost all of Mosul — Iraq’s second largest city — from Islamic State militants who overran it in 2014.

In late June, Islamic State counterattacks on the western edge of Mosul — neighborhoods retaken months earlier — stalled the push by Iraqi forces to go deeper into the Old City as they forced a reallocation of Iraqi ground forces, coalition surveillance and air support.

Unlike the Friday attack, the late June counterattack was launched from outside Mosul, most likely from Tal Afar, an Islamic State-held town about 37 miles west of Mosul.

The counterattacks underscore the extremist group’s resilience in Iraq, despite significant territorial losses and months of heavy fighting with Iraqi forces backed by U.S. air power.

Also on Friday, The U.N.’s migration agency suspended operations in two camps — the Qayara air strip emergency site and the Haj Ali camp — near Mosul hosting nearly 80,000 displaced Iraqis due to sporadic violence and exchange of gunfire.

International Organization for Migration spokesman Joel Millman said the security situation prevented six water-tanker trucks from entering the Haj Ali camp, where temperatures reached as high as 122 degrees in recent days.

Humanitarian groups have repeatedly suspended operations in and around Mosul due to security concerns since the fight to retake the city from Islamic State began last October.

In April, the United Nations suspended operations in the same area due to security threats along the road south of Mosul’s western half.

In February, the U.N. suspended operations in eastern Mosul weeks after the area was declared fully liberated as Islamic State attacks continued to inflict heavy civilian casualties.

In both instances the U.N. resumed operations within a matter of days.

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