US-backed Iraqi forces pushed deeper into western Mosul on Sunday, aiming to capture a bridge across the Tigris which would link the city's government-held eastern bank with the ongoing offensive against remaining militants in the west. All were damaged in strikes by the US-led air coalition, and later by Islamic State fighters trying to seal off the western bank still under their control. "The bridge is very important," Colonel Falah al-Wabdan of the Interior Ministry's Rapid Response unit, one of the two main forces spearheading the campaign in western Mosul, told Reuters. Iraqi forces captured eastern Mosul in January, after 100 days of fighting. The government is encouraging residents to stay in their homes whenever possible, as they did in eastern Mosul where fewer people fled than expected.

Source: Egypt Independent February 26, 2017 12:56 UTC