Iraqi Forces Make Fresh Gains in Southeast Mosul: Military
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iraqi forces drove back Daesh (ISIL or ISIS) militants in southeastern Mosul Thursday, making gains in an area where advances have been particularly tough, the military said in a statement.
Rapid response units from Iraq's federal police advanced in the Sumer district, which lies on the eastern bank of the Tigris river, and also in neighboring Sahiroun, the statement reported by state television said, Reuters reported.
Forces have pressed forward much more slowly in that area than units in the east and northeast, who have taken control of a number of neighborhoods in the past week.
The army's elite Counter Terrorism Service (CTS), has spearheaded advances in eastern Mosul.
The campaign to recapture Mosul, Daesh’s last major stronghold in Iraq, has pushed ahead with renewed vigor since the turn of the year after troops got bogged down inside the city in November and December.
On October 16, 2016, the Iraqi army backed by Federal Police and Popular Mobilization Units, also known as Hashd al-Shaabi, launched the massive operation to retake Mosul.
In recent years, Iraq has been facing the threat of terrorism, mainly posed by the Daesh terrorist group.
Daesh militants made swift advances in much of northern and western Iraq over the summer of 2014, after capturing large swaths of northern Syria.
However, a combination of concentrated attacks by the Iraqi military and the volunteer forces, who rushed to take arms after top Iraqi cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued a fatwa calling for fight against the militants, blunted the edge of Daesh offensive and later forced the Takfiri group to withdraw from most of the areas it had occupied.
