Ransacked buildings, rubble, desecrated churches and bullet casings strewn across desert sands are what ISIS "fighters" left behind as Iraqi forces pushed their way toward Mosul on Sunday.
The broken keyboard of a church organ, its keys scattered across dusty floors, was what journalists were able to see as they accompanied troops into the town of Bartila, some 25 kilometers (15 miles) east of Mosul.
Lt. Gen Abdul Ghani al-Asadi, commander of Iraq's Special Forces, surveyed the scene from a rescued office chair, surrounded by his bodyguards, after Bartila was liberated from the IS militants.
Major General Maan al-Saadi, a commander involved in the capture of Bartila, said in an interview with news agency Epa that there had been some 100 IS fighters within the town.
He said his forces had killed 80 of them and the rest had retreated to a village adjacent to Bartila, on the way to Mosul.
Al-Saadi said Iraqi Special Forces were engaged in clearing the liberated territory of numerous explosive devices planted by IS.
Epa journalists reported air strikes by F-16 jets on various positions near the town while the roaring sound of explosions from various IED (Improvised Explosive Devices) kept being heard as they visited what otherwise looked like a ghost town.
North of Mosul, battles continued in nearby Qarqosh, Bashika, and some other villages around Bartila, Epa journalists reported from the front line.
The torn pages of a bible written in the ancient Syriac language lay on the floor of a damaged church as a reminder of the IS occupation of Bartila, two days after its liberation.
[By Amel Pain and Ahmed Jalil]
EFE- EPA
23/10/16
-
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The broken keyboard of a church organ, its keys scattered across dusty floors, was what journalists were able to see as they accompanied troops into the town of Bartila, some 25 kilometers (15 miles) east of Mosul.
Lt. Gen Abdul Ghani al-Asadi, commander of Iraq's Special Forces, surveyed the scene from a rescued office chair, surrounded by his bodyguards, after Bartila was liberated from the IS militants.
Major General Maan al-Saadi, a commander involved in the capture of Bartila, said in an interview with news agency Epa that there had been some 100 IS fighters within the town.
He said his forces had killed 80 of them and the rest had retreated to a village adjacent to Bartila, on the way to Mosul.
Al-Saadi said Iraqi Special Forces were engaged in clearing the liberated territory of numerous explosive devices planted by IS.
Epa journalists reported air strikes by F-16 jets on various positions near the town while the roaring sound of explosions from various IED (Improvised Explosive Devices) kept being heard as they visited what otherwise looked like a ghost town.
North of Mosul, battles continued in nearby Qarqosh, Bashika, and some other villages around Bartila, Epa journalists reported from the front line.
The torn pages of a bible written in the ancient Syriac language lay on the floor of a damaged church as a reminder of the IS occupation of Bartila, two days after its liberation.
[By Amel Pain and Ahmed Jalil]
EFE- EPA
23/10/16
-
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