Iraqi Forces Make Huge Gains agaisnt Daesh, Enter Mosul University

"There are still clashes. We entered the university and cleared the technical institute, dentistry and antiquities departments," Lieutenant General Abdelwahab al-Saadi of the Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) said.

"In the coming hours it will be liberated completely," he stated.

The Iraqi forces also found chemical substances Daesh had used to try to make weapons, CTS commander Sami al-Aridhi said.

Recapturing the university would be a crucial strategic gain and allow Iraqi forces to advance quicker towards the Tigris River, from where they will be able to launch attacks on the city's west, still all under Daesh control.

In a separate development on Saturday, Iraqi army forces thwarted a Daesh car bomb attack, which sought to target an army base, in the western province of Anbar.

Also, a Daesh commander, identified as Abu Heydar al-Askari, was killed in western Mosul.

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.