Iraqi forces recapture new areas, close in on Tigris River in IS stronghold Mosul

Iraqi government forces on Saturday freed more areas from the Islamic State (IS) militants in the city of Mosul, bringing the troops closer to the bank of Tigris River for the first time in northern Iraq, the Iraqi military said.

In the eastern front, the elite forces of Iraq's Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) continued their progress in two routes; the first one was the push further beyond al-Muthanna neighborhood, which was freed the day before in an overnight raid, and recaptured the adjacent neighborhood of al-Rifaq, a statement by the Iraqi Joint Operations Command said.

The heavy clashes with IS militants in al-Rifaq neighborhood left some 20 extremist militants killed and three car bombs destroyed, the statement said.

The second CTS route within the eastern front made a significant progress when they freed the neighborhoods of al-Atibaa and Furqan and took new positions close to the fourth bridge on the Tigris River which bisects the city, killing some 65 militants and destroying a car bomb and a vehicle carrying heavy machine gun, the statement added.

In the southeastern front, the Iraqi federal police and army soldiers recaptured the medical complex, which includes the hospitals of al-Salam and al-Shifaa and college of medicine, while heavy fighting with slow progresses continued in Mosul's southeastern neighborhoods of al-Salam, Palestine, al-Shaimaa, Domiez and Sumer, according to the statement.

The battles on Saturday in southeastern Mosul were covered by the U.S.-led coalition warplanes and Iraqi helicopter gunships, it said, adding that the clashes left dozens of IS militants killed and 10 of their vehicles destroyed.

In the northern front, the army soldiers backed by international aircraft fought sporadic clashes during clearing operation to many of the 168-building residential compound of Hadbaa, which were freed in the advance which occurred for the time on Friday in the northern edges of the eastern side of Mosul, leaving some 26 militants killed, according to the statement.

In southwest of Mosul, the federal police forces repelled an attack by dozens of IS militants on the troops positions at the village of Bakhira, killing some 20 militants and destroying a booby-trapped vehicle and a vehicle carrying heavy machine gun, 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 River.

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