Mosul: ISIS-held city in Iraqi forces' sight but still out of reach.

Follow @Mazana17

 The eastern suburbs of ISIS-held Mosul are in sight, but the Iraqi forces trying to liberate the city are still struggling to get there.

ISIS snipers, relentless gunfire and mortar shelling are still keeping troops from penetrating the city's border.

  

An injured Iraqi counter-terrorism soldier injured during clashes with ISIS fighters on the eastern 

edge of Mosul on Monday.

Senior International Correspondent Arwa Damon, traveling with US-trained Iraqi counter-terrorism

 forces, was just 200 meters from Mosul's eastern perimeter on Wednesday, with just a barren berm between her and more than a million civilians trapped in the city.

"There is no escape route. There have been no routes that anyone has established in fact for the civilian population to leave," she said.

"If the people inside Mosul were to try to make a run for it, they're also risking their lives trying to save themselves."

  

ISIS has controlled Mosul for more than two years, imposing its own brutal version of Islamic 

sharia law, responding to "offenses" such as smoking and shaving beards with medieval-style 

punishments.

Iraqi forces on Wednesday were trying to clear the road to the key city having freed dozens of villages

 along the way. They were firing guns at IEDs and anyone considered a "suspect" as they moved slowly down the road. 

Another journalist heard an Iraqi commander tell his unit: "Deal with any civilian as an enemy until we

 know otherwise." People who are proven not to be "hostile" can take cover inside a nearby mosque,

 he said.

Forces were using an armored bulldozer to clear trucks and boulders placed by ISIS on the road 

to slow the troops' advance.

  

An Iraqi family displaced by fighting between Iraqi-led forces and ISIS flees their home on Sunday.

Civilians living on the outskirts of Mosul told CNN that ISIS fighters who lived in their village just 

days ago have fled into the city. Some fighters have gone to join the fight, while witnesses say some 

others and their families have been seen on buses, heading for the city's west and, most likely, to Syria.

Officials have warned that entering Mosul will likely trigger the fiercest fighting seen yet in the offensive, 

and with it a major challenge -- differentiating fighters from civilians.

ISIS is believed to have readied thousands of people to be used as human shields in the city, making 

targeted strikes incredibly complicated. Civilians have been advised to hunker down in their homes 

during the operation.

Iraq-Turkey tensions mount

The village of Gogjali, where Iraqi forces faced heavy clashes with ISIS fighters on Monday and

 Tuesday,  is now around 75% destroyed, according to a CNN estimate. 

Around 100,000 forces in an Iraqi-led coalition have taken part in a decisive push toward Mosul, freeing communities from ISIS control village by village along the way. US defense officials estimate that ISIS has around 5,000 fighters in and around Mosul.

The Iraqi-led coalition is an extraordinary union of forces from various religious and ethnic backgrounds that have often stood on opposing sides of the country's history. Among them are Kurdish and minority Shia paramilitary groups, who are still pushing in from the north and south. US special forces have also supported the operation. 

Military strategies in the fight for Mosul 01:39

But only Iraqi forces are entering Mosul, commanders say, a testament to Prime Minister Haider 

al-Abadi's claims that the battle for the city is at its core an Iraqi fight, and that sectarian politics must 

be kept from the key battle.

Tensions are flaring with Turkey, however, which moved tanks and bulldozers to its border at the closest point to Mosul on Tuesday, saying only that it was to deal with "terrorism."

Iraq has warned Turkey it is not welcome to take part in the offensive, but Ankara says it has already

 taken part in an assault, on the request of Kurdish Peshmerga forces that Turkey has trained.

For more News and Entertainments, follow Us at our Social Network :

Follow @Mazana17