Iraqi forces kill at least 57 militants in IS stronghold in Mosul

Iraqi security forces on Monday killed at least 57 militants of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group in and near the city of Mosul, as fierce battles continued in the city to drive out the IS militants from their last major stronghold in Iraq.

The commandos of the Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) repelled several attacks by IS suicide bombers on the troops' positions in the freed districts in eastern Mosul, including al-Qadsiyah and Zahraa, according to the CTS deputy commander Lieutenant General Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi.

The troops fought fierce clashes with the attackers and managed to kill 26 suicide bombers, Saadi told reporters.

The security forces have been fighting to go deeper into the eastern side of the city, locally known as left bank of the Tigris River, but the troops were slowed by stubborn resistance of the extremist militants who are fighting in small groups of well-trained fighters with snipers, suicide bomb attacks and many landmines, in addition to the heavy presence of civilians in their homes in Mosul districts.

Saadi also said that the CTS commandos will storm the Baker district in the coming hours, while heavy clashes are underway in several other districts.

Separately, the troops of the army's 16th Division and allied Sunni tribal fighters killed 31 IS militants and destroyed two booby-trapped cars when they stormed IS positions in area located some five kilometers in north of Mosul, according to the commander of the security forces in north of Mosul, Lieutenant General Ali al-Freiji.

In south of Mosul, the armored 9th Division freed the village of al-Naiyfa, just west of the town of Nimrud and its nearby archeological site, some 30 km south of Mosul, which the troops liberated them on Sunday, said Lieutenant General Abdul-Amir Yarallah from the Joint Operations Command.

In west of Mosul, the Shiite Hashd Shaabi paramilitary units continued their advance in the vast rugged land in west of Mosul toward the town of Tal-Afar, some 70 km west of Mosul, and managed to recaptured four villages after clashes with the IS militants, Yarallah said in a press release.

Tal Afar, which used to have majority of both Sunni and Shiite Turkoman villagers, as well as other minorities of Kurds and Arabs, fell to IS in 2014.

The advance of the pre-dominantly Shiite paramilitary units was aimed to cut off the supply lines between Mosul and neighboring Syria, but such advance in the ethnically mixed region where Sunni Muslims form a majority, could spark sectarian tension with Sunni Arabs and neighboring Sunni state of Turkey.

The battles in and around Mosul is part of a major offensive announced by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Oct. 17 to retake Mosul, the country's second largest city.

Since then, the Iraqi security forces have inched to the eastern fringes of Mosul and made progress on other routes around the city.

Early in the month, hundreds of the CTS commandos and Iraqi army made a significant progress from three directions at the eastern side of Mosul and managed to recapture some 10 districts, so far, out of about 60 districts on both sides of the city.

Mosul, some 400 km north of Iraqi capital of Baghdad, has been under IS control since June 2014, when Iraqi government forces abandoned their weapons and fled, enabling IS militants to take control of parts of Iraq's northern and western regions. Endit