Off the wire
• Kenya to attract foreign investors to hit 10 pct annual growth  • Myanmar to consider becoming full member of Mekong River Commission: president  • Roundup: Africa needs concrete measures to address illicit financial outflows: experts  • Zambia to start transacting in U.S. dollar at border entry  • Former NBA player Turkoglu elected new leader of Turkish Basketball Federation  • 36 injured in cooking gas cylinder explosion in central Nepal  • Kenya's green bond policy to be in place in early 2017  • Zambian gov't to demolish properties built on illegal land  • Iran finalizes agreements with German, Swiss insurers for coverage on transactions  • Spain's Banco Santander earns 4.61 bln euros in Jan-Sept  
You are here: 　 Home

Iraqi forces advance closer to new positions outside IS-held Mosul

Xinhua, October 26, 2016 Adjust font size:

Iraqi security forces on Wednesday inched to the eastern fringes of the city of Mosul, and made progress on other routes around the city preparing for the major battle to storm the city and drive out the Islamic State (IS) militant group from its last major stronghold in Iraq, a security source said.

On the 10th day of the offensive to free Iraq's northern province of Nineveh and its capital Mosul, the counter-terrorism commandos recaptured al-Khaznah village, some 5 km in east of Mosul, the nearest area reached by the troops to eastern edge of Mosul, a source from the Operations Command of Nineveh Liberation told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

"The latest advance to Khaznah brought the troops closer to Mosul's Gogjali district, which located on the main road to Mosul," the source said.

In northeast of Mosul, the troops recaptured two military bases of al-Qal'at and Jenin, which were used by the Iraqi forces before IS blitzkrieg in 2014, after heavy clashes with IS militants that left dozens of the extremist militants killed and wounded, the source said.

The troops started earlier in the day to defuse dozens of roadside bombs and booby-trapped buildings in the two bases, the source added.

Meanwhile, Kurdish Peshmerga advanced to the edges of the town of Tel-keif, some 20 km north of Mosul, and clashed with the IS militants inside the town, the source said, adding that the troops seized a nearby propane gas plant after the extremist militants fled the scene.

Peshmerga forces also entered the village of al-Fadhliyah, some 35 km northeast of Mosul, and heavy clashes are still underway during the day, the source added.

In south of Mosul, the security forces and allied Shiite paramilitary Hashd Shaabi units continued their fighting in clear cluster of villages near the IS-held town of Shoura, some 30 km south of Mosul, the source said.

On Oct. 17, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who is also the commander-in-chief of the Iraqi forces, announced the start of a major offensive to retake Mosul, the country's second largest city.

Mosul, some 400 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, has been under IS control since June 2014, when Iraqi government forces abandoned their weapons and fled. Endit