Five Bridges.

This is coolbert:

From Reuters and the article by Stephen Kalin. Thanks to the tip from Freeper.

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

 "MOSUL, IRAQ - - 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 [ISIL] 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."

Those five bridges in yellow across the Tigris. All five damaged to some degree. To what extent the bridges if and when captured by the forces of the Iraqi National Army able to accommodate military traffic unclear. The Iraqi national Army does not possess a pontoon bridging capability of some sort? Thanks to CNN and Google for the image.

One bridge too far. Forward movement of Iraqi and Kurd forces the capture of Mosul the objective again glacially slow. It almost sounds to me like this has become Stalingrad in the desert. When the fighting is over, all that will be left will be smoldering and bomb-cratered devastated city uninhabitable.

"Forward movement", "glacially slow" and relegated to battling over a few hundred meters at a time. Such is the nature of urban warfare. As it is now in Mosul.

coolbert.