IRBIL: Daesh shot down an Iraqi helicopter operating over Mosul Thursday, as security forces announced they recaptured another neighborhood in their nearly six-month-old offensive against the terrorist stronghold.
The operation to retake west Mosul — which the helicopter was supporting when it was downed — has become a slow, grinding battle that has taken a heavy toll on civilians and pushed more than 200,000 to flee.
“The helicopter was supporting federal police forces in (west Mosul) and was hit by fire and crashed in the Mohandiseen neighborhood in east Mosul,” Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool, the spokesman for Iraq’s Joint Operations Command, said.
The city is divided by the Tigris River. East Mosul was recaptured earlier this year, but Daesh still holds significant ground on the city’s western side.
Federal police are operating alongside Interior Ministry special forces in Mosul’s Old City — a densely populated warren of narrow streets and closely spaced buildings that is home to hundreds of thousands of people.
Rasool said the US-made Bell helicopter crashed about 3 p.m. (1200 GMT) on Thursday, and that he believed it was hit by 57 mm anti-aircraft fire.
Rasool also said Thursday that Iraqi forces had recaptured a west Mosul neighborhood called Yarmuk Al-Thaniya.
The fighting in west Mosul has forced up to 15,000 people to flee their homes every day recently, straining humanitarian resources and leaving many in very difficult conditions.
At the Hammam Al-Alil camp for the displaced south of Mosul, hundreds of haggard-looking civilians spill out of buses escorted by the security forces all day long.
The camp is a screening site and a gateway for some who will then board other buses and taxis to look for accommodation in other camps or with relatives in “liberated” east Mosul and neighboring areas.
But others, often among the most needy, stay at the camp and move into tents with relatives or neighbors, sometimes three or four families crammed into the same 10-meter by 4-meter tent.
“There are four families in this tent, about 30 people sleep in it,” said Marwan Nayef, a 25-year-old from west Mosul, as a dozen children stood around him or peeped from behind the tent’s tarpaulin door.
“Sometimes, it’s not big enough so the men go to sleep in a friend’s tent. I’m currently sleeping in my brother’s tent,” he said.
A few alleys down in the camp, whose population has soared to around 30,000, Shahra Hazem holds her 16-month-old hydrocephalic son in her arms.
“He needs an operation, there’s water in his head, but there is just no help available. I tried to take him to another camp but they wouldn’t let us in,” she said.
According to the UN, at least 400,000 people have been displaced since the Mosul operation began on Oct. 17.
The majority of those who had to flee their homes did so during the most recent phase of the operation, which started on Feb. 19 in the half of the city that lies west of the Tigris river.
In the Hammam Al-Alil camp, massive queues of civilians form at midday to receive a helping of rice and sauce from a catering tent, many of them barefooted children who then sit on the gravel to devour their ration.
Some fetch food from outside the camp, others from an informal market that opened on the other side of the fence.
A woman carrying her daughter ran into neighbors from Mosul and told them of how she and her family survived an airstrike that demolished their house.
“Daesh set up a machine gun position in front of our door so the security forces fired back ... Luckily, we were all on the ground floor,” said the woman, wearing a bright green dress.
“Some of our neighbors tried to flee yesterday and the security forces shot at them because they thought they were with Daesh. This is happening a lot,” she said.
Iraqi helicopter downed in fight to retake Mosul
Iraqi helicopter downed in fight to retake Mosul
What we know about alleged strike on Iran school
- The New York Times has authenticated video uploaded by Iran’s semi-official Mehr News showing a US Tomahawk cruise missile striking a structure described as a clinic inside a Revolutionary Guards’ base next to the school
PARIS, France: A new investigation by the New York Times has shed more light on events surrounding a reported attack on a school in Iran at the start of the Middle East war.
Iran has accused Israel and the United States of conducting a strike on an elementary school in the southern city of Minab, which it said killed more than 150 people.
US President Donald Trump has blamed Iran, while the Pentagon has said it is investigating the incident.
AFP has been unable to access the location to independently verify the circumstances or the toll from any such incident.
Iranian authorities have to give explicit approval to foreign media organizations wishing to report outside Tehran.
- Tomahawk -
The New York Times has authenticated video uploaded by Iran’s semi-official Mehr News showing a US Tomahawk cruise missile striking a structure described as a clinic inside a Revolutionary Guards’ base next to the school.
According to the Times, in this war, the only military using Tomahawks is the United States.
The footage showed dust and smoke rising from the direction of the school, indicating at least one earlier explosion.
“A body of evidence assembled by The Times — including satellite imagery, social media posts and other verified videos — indicates that the SHajjarah Tayyebeh elementary school building was severely damaged by a precision strike that occurred at the same time as attacks on the naval base,” the paper said.
US Central Command has released footage of Tomahawk launches filmed on February 28, the day Minab was hit, while senior US officers briefed that early salvoes included Navy Tomahawks across Iran’s southern flank.
The Times had previously reported that US military statements indicating forces were attacking naval targets near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, where a Revolutionary Guards’ base is located, “suggest they were most likely to have carried out the strike.”
- Near strategic waterway -
Earlier footage filmed from a parking lot showed black smoke billowing from a damaged building adorned with murals featuring drawings of crayons, children and an apple.
AFP has geolocated the clip to a building in Minab, though it has not been able to independently verify the nature of the site.
AFP has confirmed the building was located in close proximity to two sites controlled by the Revolutionary Guards.
The Shahid Absalan clinic, under the supervision of the Guards navy’s medical command, lies 238 meters (780 feet) from the site, while the Seyed Al-Shohada IRGC cultural complex is 286 meters away.
AFP could not independently verify the date the footage from the car park was filmed.
- What Iran says -
Iran has said more than 150 people were killed in what President Masoud Pezeshkian described as US-Israeli strikes on the school.
According to state media, Iran held funerals for at least 165 people including students killed in the alleged attack.
State television carried images showing a large crowd of mourners weeping over what appeared to be bodies wrapped in white shrouds.
Other images released by state media showed individuals preparing coffins draped in the Iranian flag — some bearing photographs of children.
Another aerial image showed excavators digging out at least 100 graves at an unidentified mass burial site.
AFP has been unable to independently verify the date the images were taken or access the location to verify the circumstances surrounding the events.
- Trump blames Iran -
President Trump has blamed Iran.
“We think it was done by Iran. Because they are very inaccurate, as you know, with their munitions. They have no accuracy whatsoever,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Saturday.
On Monday, Trump said the United States was investigating the strike “right now.”
“Whatever the report shows, I’m willing to live with that report,” Trump said, adding he did not “know enough about” the strike while also suggesting Iran may have used a Tomahawk missile — a weapon it does not possess — to hit the school itself.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio last week said the United States would not intentionally target a school and said the Pentagon was investigating.
“The United States would not deliberately target a school. Our objectives are missiles, both the ability to manufacture them and the ability to launch them,” he told reporters.
US Democratic lawmakers on Monday urged the Pentagon to conduct an impartial probe into what happened.
- Israel not aware -
Israel’s military said it was not aware of any US or Israeli strike on a school.
“At this point not aware of an Israeli or an American strike there... We’re operating in an extremely accurate manner,” military spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani told reporters.
- Human rights group -
Norway-based rights group Hengaw said the school was holding its morning session at the time of the reported attack and had about 170 students present.
