Battle For The Iraqi City of Mosul -- News Updates February 26, 2017

Reuters: Iraqi forces aim to secure Mosul bridge, link up to east bank

U.S.-backed Iraqi forces pushed deeper into western Mosul on Sunday, aiming to capture a bridge across the Tigris which would link the city's government-held eastern bank with the ongoing offensive against remaining militants in the west.

The bridge is the southernmost of five bridges spanning the Tigris. All were damaged in strikes by the U.S.-led air coalition, and later by Islamic State fighters trying to seal off the western bank still under their control.

"The bridge is very important," Colonel Falah al-Wabdan of the Interior Ministry's Rapid Response unit, one of the two main forces spearheading the campaign in western Mosul, told Reuters. "The bridge is about 400 meters away. By the end of the day you will hear that our forces have arrived (there)."

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Battle For The Iraqi City of Mosul -- News Updates February 26, 2017

Iraq forces in west Mosul aim for key bridge -- AFP
Iraqi forces push into west Mosul -- Financial Times
Iraq: Officials recapture new neighborhood in Mosul -- FOX News
Iraqi forces push deeper into west Mosul -- France 24
Iraqi army makes advances in western Mosul as thousands flee fighting -- Euronews
Separate blasts kill 2 militia leaders near Mosul -- Iraqi News
Police Commandos recapture new neighborhood in Mosul: Iraq -- NYPost
West Mosul trap: Iraqi forces retake 2 districts, up to 800,000 civilians caught in battle zone -- RT
Conditions deteriorate in west Mosul as Iraqi advances slow -- AP
US Forces Push Artillery, Rockets, and Helicopters Closer to the Fight in Mosul -- Foreign Policy
Almost 2,400 Iraqis flee Mosul in 24 hours -- CNN