In push for Mosul, US coalition pummeling ISIS

In the eastern Salam neighborhood, residents reported five civilians killed by ISIS mortars as militants fought Iraqi forces in the area. Iraqi security officials said there was progress in the fight in Salam.

The presence of ISIS in certain parts of the city has started to wane.

In some areas, residents said, some ISIS members and sympathizers have started selling their houses, cars and other property to finance escapes.

The sympathizers have met opposition from residents who are discouraging people from buying the cheap property in retaliation for what the ISIS members or supporters did to the citizens of Mosul.

But a number of residents told CNN they are disappointed with the speed of Mosul’s liberation.

They said fear across the city among residents has increased because of what they see as slow advances by the Iraqi forces.

ISIS has fortified its positions and regrouped after the Iraqi forces’ initial push on Mosul, which was faster than current progress, residents said.

In the last four weeks, coalition forces have hammered ISIS targets with 4,000 bombs, artillery strikes and missiles, coalition spokesman Col. John C. Dorian said. They also have killed hundreds of fighters in the battle to retake Mosul, ISIS’ last remaining stronghold, he said.

Nearly 60 vehicles equipped with bombs and more than 80 tunnels have been destroyed, Dorian said at news conference in Qayyara.

The group said the UN’s Iraq Humanitarian Response Plan for 2016 is “barely half-funded, as is the emergency appeal to address needs related to Mosul.”

“Humanitarian aid groups in Iraq are already struggling to meet the needs of some 10 million people who rely on humanitarian assistance in some form. The humanitarian needs created by Mosul are simply adding to a humanitarian disaster that was already not adequately addressed. Recent events in Iraq will only aggravate that situation,” Grisgraber said.