Iraqi forces backed by helicopter strikes engaged in heavy fighting with jihadists on the outskirts of the Old City on Sunday as they pressed their offensive to recapture west Mosul. The elite Rapid Response Force and Iraqi federal police attacked the Islamic State group militants with rifles, machineguns, mortar rounds and rockets a month after the west Mosul operation began.
The joint forces were around 100 metres (yards) south of Mosul's Iron Bridge, which has been destroyed along with other bridges spanning the Tigris River that linked the city's eastern and western sides.
Helicopters hosed IS with bullets and fired volleys of rockets in strikes aided by weather that was clearer than it had been for days, AFP correspondents said.
"The aim of the battle is to go past Al-Hadidi (Iron) Bridge northwards," Brigadier General Abbas al-Juburi of the Rapid Response units told AFP.
He said the operation was complicated by the presence of hundreds of thousands of civilians believed to have stayed on under jihadist rule.
"The difficulties are the presence of families, how to avoid opening fire on families who are used as human shields" by the jihadists, Juburi said.
"It is an ancient neighbourhood with old houses. We rarely use heavy weapons" in such conditions, he said.
The battle for the densely populated Old City, with its warrens of alleyways, was always expected to be the toughest of the campaign to retake Mosul from IS.
Iraqi authorities launched the offensive to retake the city on October 17 last year, with the support of the US-led coalition that has been carrying out strikes against IS in Iraq and neighbouring Syria since 2014.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi left for Washington on Sunday for talks with US President Donald Trump and will also attend a ministerial meeting on Wednesday of the 68-nation coalition line-up against IS.
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