Video: U.S. Coalition Airstrike in Mosul Destroys Islamic State Headquarters

Screenshot
Ben Kew

The U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State (ISIS) has released footage showing the destruction of a hotel in Mosul it claims was used as the ISIS headquarters in the city.

Officials from Combined Joint Task Force (CJTF) working on Operation Inherent Resolve released footage on Monday of airstrikes on the Ashur Hotel in Mosul, northern Iraq, reportedly used as the headquarters for ISIS military meetings.

In a report by the Department of Defense, officials confirmed that two ISIS buildings were destroyed in the attack, as well as a range of weapons systems, supply routes, and tactical units:

Near Mosul, four strikes engaged three ISIS tactical units, an ISIS heavy machine gun team and an ISIS sniper team; destroyed six fighting positions, two heavy machine guns, two rocket-propelled grenade systems, two VBIEDs, two VBIED factories, two mortar systems, a command and control node, a tactical vehicle, a roadblock, a supply cache, and an ISIS-held building; damaged eight supply routes and an ISIS-held building; and suppressed 17 ISIS mortar teams and ten ISIS tactical units.

The U.S.-backed Iraqi alliance has now reportedly taken over the area after they began the operation to reclaim it on March 10. Iraqi military officials have claimed that victory over ISIS forces in Mosul is imminent.

“Despite the tough fighting, we are moving ahead in persistence to finish the battle for the western side within a month,” Iraqi Lt. Gen. Talib Shaghati, the Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) head, said last week.

However, there are now suspicions among U.S. military leaders that ISIS is employing chemical weapons to defend its Mosul territory, considered to be the group’s last major stronghold in Iraq.

In his first speech to Congress, President Donald Trump promised to eradicate ISIS and work with America’s “friends and allies in the Muslim world” to combat “radical Islamic terrorism,” a term both former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton refused to use. They referred, instead, to radical Islamic terrorism as “extremism” generally.

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