Iraqi forces gain ground in Mosul, enter northern city for first time

Iraqi government forces on Friday retook control of more areas from the Islamic State (IS) militants in the city of Mosul, making a new progress for the first time in northern the city, the Iraqi military said.

The Iraqi army soldiers, backed by Iraqi and U.S.-led coalition aircraft, advanced in the northern edge of the eastern side of Mosul and freed al-Mazari neighborhood as well as the 168-building residential compound of Hadbaa after driving out IS militants, a statement by the Iraqi Joint Operations Command said.

The battles left some 55 of the extremist militants killed and destroyed nine booby-trapped vehicles, the statement said.

The new advance was the first for the troops after they defeated the IS defensive lines in northern Mosul, the statement said, adding that the troops now are fighting at the edges of four neighborhoods.

In the eastern front, the elite forces of Iraq's Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) advanced in two routes; the first one was a night-time raid against IS militants when the troops crossed the Khuser tributary and managed to recapture al-Muthanna neighborhood after fierce clashes which resulted in the killing of dozens of IS militants and destroying four car bombs, the statement said.

The overnight attack surprised IS militants who did not expect the troops to attack at night, because all previous operations were during the day.

The second CTS route within the eastern front was advancing from the recently freed industrial area to the al-Baath neighborhood and the northern part of the adjacent Wahda neighborhood, sparking sporadic clashes with IS militants and killing dozens of them and destroying two car bombs, the statement added.

In the southeastern front, the Iraqi federal police and army soldiers continued their heavy fighting with slow progresses in Mosul's southeastern neighborhoods of al-Salam, Palestine, al-Shaimaa, Domiez and Sumer, according to the statement.

The battles on Friday in southeastern Mosul left dozens of IS militants killed and 14 of their vehicles destroyed, it said.

The battles in Mosul came as the CTS commandos, army troops and federal police launched on Dec. 29 the second phase of a major offensive to free Mosul. The troops made their new push into several neighborhoods in the eastern side of Mosul, locally known as the left bank of the Tigris which bisects the city.

Last month, battles in Mosul had been slowed as extremist militants used locals as human shields, resorted to suicide car bombs and made mortar and sniper attacks in stiff resistance.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a recent report that the military operations in Mosul, have pushed some 132,000 civilians to flee their homes in the city and its adjacent districts since the beginning of military offensive in October to reclaim the IS largest stronghold in Iraq.

More than 1.5 million people were trapped in the city of roughly two million population previously. Cold winter worsened the conditions for the displaced people who suffered severe shortages of food and water, while camps and other emergency shelters reached maximum capacity.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Oct. 17 announced a major offensive to retake Mosul, the country's second largest city.

Since then, Iraqi security forces, backed by international coalition forces, have inched to the eastern fringes of Mosul and made progress on other routes around the 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, enabling IS militants to take control of parts of Iraq's northern and western regions. Endit