Iraqi Forces Liberate Areas in Western Mosul

As part of a massive operation to liberate Mosul, the last stronghold of Daesh in Iraq, the government forces retook control over the al-Arubah neighborhood and an industrial area west of the city, the Arabic-language al-Ahed news website reported.

Iraqi Federal Police Chief Lieutenant General Shaker Jawdat had announced earlier that his forces retook full control over a command post of the terrorists in the city’s west.

He added that in the operation, the Iraqi forces seized explosives, a number of weapons and communications equipment from the terror group.

On February 19, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the launch of a military assault aimed at taking western Mosul from Daesh.

"We announce the start of a new phase in the operation. We are coming to Nineveh to liberate the western side of Mosul," Abadi said on television at the time.

Iraq has been facing the growing threat of terrorism, mainly posed by Daesh.

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 the fight against the militants, blunted the edge of Daesh offensive and later made the terror group withdraw from much of the territories it had occupied.