Iraqi army bringing out the big guns as it makes final move on Mosul as ISIS holds up advance
Soldiers have been posing with the Russian-made TOS-1A Buratino weapon 10 miles away from the key battleground
IRAQI troops have brought out the big guns in a bid to reclaim Mosul's outskirts.
They were photographed posing with the 60-ton, Russian-made TOS-1A Buratino - one of their most menacing weapons - less than ten miles from Iraq's second largest city.
It's been ten days since the start of the biggest ground offensive in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003.
A picture of the rocket launcher was taken near Bartella, which was taken over by Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service troops on October 20.
The TOS-1 has a shorter range, but kills "almost entirely with pressure".
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Gen. Joseph Votel, commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East said: “They’ve had a long time to prepare for that fight, so all of that we’re going to contend with here very, very soon."
The launcher has 24 thermobaric rockets which all contain a flammable chemical.
It disperses into the air above a target before detonating in an area up to 300 metres wide.
The chemicals rupture internal organs and suffocate the lungs.
But ISIS has had more than two years to plan explosive traps and ambushes - leaving the result of the overall battle up in the air.
In 2014, Russia gave Iraq at least four TOS-1As. The U.S. Army’s Paladin guns and HIMARS rocket artillery — which were both sent to Iraq — can hit enemies from between 11 and 298 miles.
Sources say ISIS is sending "suicide squads" from Syria to its Iraqi stronghold of Mosul.
It's after tens of thousands of troops move in on the key city in a bid to reclaim it from the militant group's control.
Witnesses say ISIS fighters have been seen rigging bridges across the strategic Tigris river with explosives.
They have prepared dozens of vehicle-borne suicide bombs.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights spokesman, Rupert Colville, said: "We continue to receive reports of depredations -- including extrajudicial killings and summary executions -- against children and women, as well as male civilians, by ISIL as Iraqi Government forces close in on Mosul.
"We also continue to receive information that reinforces the belief that ISIL are deliberately using civilians as human shields -- forcing them to move to sites where ISIL fighters are based, or preventing them from leaving other places for strategic reasons."
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