Iraqi forces on Thursday thrust into Mosul airport on the southern edge of the jihadist stronghold for the first time since the Islamic State group overran the region in 2014.

Backed by jets, helicopter gunships and drones, forces blitzed their way across open areas south of Mosul and entered the airport compound, apparently meeting limited resistance but strafing the area for suspected snipers.

"Right now thank God we're inside Mosul airport and in front of its terminal. Our troops are liberating it," Hisham Abdul Kadhem, a commander in the interior ministry's Rapid Response units, told AFP inside the airport.

Little was left standing inside the perimeter and what used to be the runway was littered with dirt and rubble.

Most buildings were completely levelled but Iraqi forces celebrated the latest landmark in the four-month-old offensive to retake Mosul.

While Iraqi forces were not yet deployed in the northern part of the sprawling airport compound and sappers cautiously scanned the site for explosive devices, IS jihadists appeared to offer limited resistance.

As Iraqi forces approached the airport moments earlier, attack helicopters fired rockets at an old sugar factory that stands next to the perimeter wall, sending a cloud of ash floating across the area.

As they moved past the factory, an explosive device detonated next to the convoy's lead vehicle. It sent soldiers running back away from the blast but nobody was injured.

The push on the airport was launched at dawn and Iraqi forces stormed it within hours from the southwest.

- US forces -

The regional command said elite forces from the Counter-Terrorism Service were simultaneously attacking the neighbouring Ghazlani military base, where some of them were stationed before IS seized Mosul in June 2014.

Control of the base and airport would set government forces up to enter Mosul neighbourhoods on the west bank of the Tigris, a month after declaring full control of the east bank.

All of the city's bridges across the river are damaged.

The US-led coalition has played a key role in supporting Iraqi forces with air strikes and advisers on the ground, and on Thursday US forces were seen on the front lines.

The American troops are not supposed to be doing the actual fighting but in recent weeks have got so close to the front that they have come under attack, coalition spokesman Colonel John Dorrian said.

"They have come under fire at different times, they have returned fire at different times, in and around Mosul," Dorrian told reporters on Wednesday.

He declined to say if there had been any US casualties in the attacks, but an unnamed official later told CNN that several personnel had been evacuated from the battlefield.

The latest push to retake Mosul, the country's second city and the last stronghold of the jihadists in Iraq, was launched on Sunday and involves thousands of security personnel.

They started closing in on the airport four days ago. It is unclear how many jihadists tried to defend the airport but US officials said Monday that only around 2,000 remain in Mosul.

There are an estimated 750,000 civilians trapped on the city's west bank, which is a bit smaller than the east side but more densely populated.

It includes the Old City and its narrow streets, which will make for a difficult terrain when Iraqi forces reach it because they will be impassable for some military vehicles.

- Letters from the east -

The noose has for months now been tightening around Mosul and the living conditions for civilians are fast deteriorating.

Residents AFP has reached by phone spoke of dwindling food supplies forcing many families to survive on just one meal a day.

Medical workers say the weakest are beginning to die of the combined effect of malnutrition and the lack of medicines, which IS fighters have been keeping for themselves.

An army plane late Wednesday dropped thousands of letters written by residents of the retaken east bank to their fellow citizens across the river.

"Be patient and help each other... the end of injustice is near," read one of them which was signed "People from the east side".

"Stay in your homes and cooperate with the security forces. They are your brothers, they came to liberate you," read another.

A smaller than expected proportion of the east side's population fled when Iraqi forces stormed it nearly four months ago but the United Nations is bracing for a bigger exodus from the west.

It had said 250,000 people or more could flee their homes on the west bank and has scrambled to set up new displacement camps around the city.

The battle for Mosul: What we know
Baghdad (AFP) Feb 23, 2017 - Iraqi forces on Thursday stormed Mosul airport and looked poised to fully retake it from the Islamic State group, the latest landmark in a four-month-old offensive to recapture the city.

The massive operation, Iraq's largest in years, has involved tens of thousands of security personnel and could yet last several more weeks or months. Here are some facts:

Where are the Iraqi forces?

Elite forces from the interior ministry's Rapid Response units stormed Mosul airport after a lightning push through some of the open areas south of the city.

They were followed by forces from the federal police. They were met with limited resistance from the jihadists but have yet to fully secure all parts of the sprawling airport compound.

Elite forces from the Counter-Terrorism Service simultaneously attacked further to the west and advanced towards the Ghazlani military base, where some of them were stationed before IS seized the city in 2014.

Meanwhile, Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation) paramilitaries continued to clear desert areas further west and to tighten the noose around Tal Afar, a large town still under IS control.

They have cut the road between Mosul and Tal Afar, as well as IS's supply lines to Syria.

Iraqi forces are receiving substantial air support from the US-led coalition as well as from Iraqi army aviation helicopters.

US coalition advisers were seen on the front lines Thursday as Iraqi forces advanced on the airport.

What to expect in west Mosul?

Control of the airport will set the stage for elite forces to breach the city limits on the west bank.

Iraqi forces could also attempt to punch into the densely populated city's western side from a number of other directions, including by throwing pontoon bridges across the river from the east bank they have already retaken.

The battle in west Mosul could be even tougher than on the eastern side, owing to the narrow streets of the Old City that are impassable for many military vehicles and to the presumed higher level of support for the jihadists among the population there.

A senior US intelligence official said Monday that west Mosul was defended by an estimated 2,000 IS fighters, which suggests the group suffered heavy losses in the east since the launch of the Mosul battle when its strength there was estimated at 5,000 to 7,000 men.

A US-led coalition supporting the war on IS in Iraq and Syria has dropped more than 10,000 munitions on IS targets since the operation began on October 17. It also has special forces on the ground advising Iraqi fighters.

How are civilians affected?

While some civilians died and others were used as human shields by IS during the offensive on east Mosul, a feared exodus of unprecedented proportions did not materialise, with about three quarters of the east bank's population remaining in their homes during the fighting.

Around 200,000 fled their homes since the Mosul operation was launched and around a fourth of them have already returned.

The aid community has warned however that the push on the west bank could yet trigger mass displacement and relief workers are scrambling to build new camps around Mosul.

It also fears that a protracted siege of holdout jihadists in west Mosul could leave an estimated 750,000 civilians facing starvation there.

Save the Children says 350,000 of them are children.

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Iraq forces poised for Mosul airport assault
Al-Buseif, Iraq (AFP) Feb 22, 2017
Iraqi forces readied on Wednesday for an assault on Mosul airport after blitzing jihadist positions in a renewed offensive to retake the Islamic State group's emblematic stronghold. Elite forces reinforced positions that were taken since a fresh push south of Mosul was launched on Sunday while hundreds of civilians fled newly recaptured villages. "Around 480 people displaced from Al-Yarm ... read more

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