Daily Times

The US-led coalition says it has carried out several airstrikes near Mosul as part of a week-old operation to retake Iraq’s second largest city from the Islamic State group.

Central Command said on Tuesday it carried out five airstrikes near Mosul the previous day, destroying 22 fighting positions, eight tunnels and nine vehicles, one of which was rigged with explosives.

The military says it also carried out a strike on Monday near Rutba, in far western Iraq, where Iraqi forces have been battling IS militants since Sunday. It says that strike destroyed 11 vehicles.

The US is also providing ground support for the Mosul operation, with more than 100 American soldiers embedded with Iraqi units and hundreds more working in staging bases. A US soldier was killed by a roadside bomb last week.

Iraqi forces, backed by US-led coalition airstrikes, are battling Islamic State militants for a third day in a remote western town, hundreds of kilometres (miles) to the south of the operation to retake Mosul.

Col. John Dorrian, a spokesman for the US-led coalition, says “fighting is ongoing in Rutba” on Tuesday and that the town is still contested.

He says the coalition strikes are supporting the Iraqi forces’ “response efforts, including one against a Daesh convoy that was attempting to flee the area.” Daesh is an Arabic acronym for the IS group.

The Iraqi military could not immediately be reached for comment.

IS launched a complex attack on Rutba on Sunday. Iraqi officials have said the situation is under control, but haven’t provided details about the fighting or possible casualties.