In a historic setback for the Islamic State as the terror group loses its grip on its Iraqi hub of Mosul, a coalition airstrike reportedly cut off the city’s last functioning bridge — a span that ISIS showed off in a propaganda video this month.
(FOX)- Video posted Wednesday by the terror group’s media arm showed that a section of the metal bridge, known as the Old Bridge, fell into the Tigris River. The strike took out the last crossing ISIS fighters could use to transport weapons in and out of the eastern part of the city, where the fighting has peaked.
Some of the civilian men and women who remain trapped in Mosul told The Associated Press the strike that took out the bridge unfolded at dawn Monday.
In the ISIS propaganda video that featured the crossing, a narrator claimed the U.S.-led coalition strikes — not the terrorists — were responsible for the trapped residents’ suffering, The Washington Post reported.
U.S. Air Force Col. John Dorrian, a spokesman for the coalition, told the Post the Iraqi government would repair the damage — but only after defeating ISIS.
The northern city of Mosul had five bridges spanning the Tigris River. Four of them have now been bombed in airstrikes since the massive government military operation began on Oct. 17, while one was disabled weeks before the operation began.