Meet the checkpoint sniper ‘sending ISIS thugs to hell’ as Brit SAS troops join the bloody Battle for Mosul
Hardman Riyad Jaffar, 27, guards a checkpoint armed with a high-powered sniper rifle and wearing a black face mask
THIS battle-hardened Iraqi army sniper is seen standing guard at a checkpoint in the war-torn country.
Riyad Jaffar, 27, of Baghdad — wearing a black face mask and armed with a high-powered sniper rifle — stands on the outskirts of Qayara, about 30 miles south of the ISIS-held city of Mosul.
Iraqi forces and their allies are battling to take back Mosul after two years under ISIS control.
It comes as a British special forces troops waded into the bloody battle to rescue the city.
The SAS soldiers have joined forced with the Iraqi army to wrestle the terror brutes from their stronghold.
British soldiers and American special forced had until now supported Iraqi and Peshmerga troops from a far.
But now they have been drafted into the frontline to beat back and kill terror thugs.
Nearly 1,000 ISIS fighters have been killed in the bloody four week battle to drive them out of their Iraqi HQ.
But the move has come at a cost - with many Iraqi and Peshmerga victims.
This week Iraqi security forces discovered two mass graves near the city of Mosul containing more than 250 bodies.
The graves - including one in a deep well - were found near Hammam al-Alil and were created by ISIS militants. There is evidence dozens were thrown alive into the well.
Their discovery follows the uncovering of 100 decapitated bodies in another mass grave near the town just over a week ago.
Hammam al-Alil is on the Tigris River around 30 kilometers (19 miles) south of Mosul. It was liberated by Iraqi Federal Police about 10 days ago.
"We believe the well contains more than 200 bodies. ISIS used this mass grave to kill and dump people over the past two years," Iraqi Federal Police Commander Brig. Gen. Faris Radhi Abbas told CNN.
"ISIS terrorists have also planted bombs around this mass grave to prevent family members from recovering the bodies of their loved ones,"
The second mass grave was discovered contained about 45 bodies.
The US-backed offensive to crush Islamic State in its last major city stronghold in Iraq entered its second month today.
ISIS militants have been steadily retreating from areas around Mosul into the city since the battle started on October 17.
An elite army unit, the Counter Terrorism Service, breached the city's eastern limits for the first time two weeks ago.
Another breakthrough came on Wednesday, when Iranian-backed militias announced the capture of an air base west of Mosul.
The capture of the Tal Afar base also offers the mainly Shi'ite forces a launchpad for operations against ISIS targets inside Syria.
The offensive to take Mosul, the largest city under ISIS control in either Iraq or Syria, is turning into the biggest battle in Iraq's turbulent history since the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.
And those still living in the city are feeling the brunt as they are caught up in the ferocious fighting.
The militants have launched waves of counter-attacks against advancing forces, tying them down in lethal urban combat in narrow streets still full of residents.
The city's capture is seen as crucial towards dismantling the caliphate, and Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, believed to have withdrawn to a remote area near the Syrian border, has told his fighters there can be no retreat.
Iraqi military estimates put the number of Islamic State fighters in the city at 5,000 to 6,000.
Facing them is a 100,000-strong coalition of Iraqi government forces, Kurdish fighters and Shi'ite paramilitary units.
Nearly 57,000 people have been displaced because of the fighting, moving from villages and towns around the city to government-held areas, according to UN estimates.
The figure does not include the thousands of people rounded up in villages around Mosul and forced to accompany Islamic State fighters to cover their retreat towards the city.
The militants are dug in among the civilians as a defence tactic to hamper air strikes, moving around the city through tunnels, driving suicide car bombs into advancing troops and hitting them with sniper and mortar fire.
The resilience of Islamic State's defenses has forced a greater involvement from the coalition made up mainly of western nations including Britain, France, Italy, Canada and Australia.