Iraqi forces storm last IS-held district northwest of Mosul’s Old City: officer

Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi government forces began Tuesday invading the last district leading to the Islamic State-held Old City from the northwest as commanders reassure of near victory.

Cap. Kadhim Hassan, from the Interior Ministry’s Rapid Response forces, told BasNews that troops invaded al-Najjar district, and managed to destroy ten booby-trapped cars belonging to the Islamic State at that district.

His announcement came shortly after Brig. Gen. Yahia Rasoul, spokesperson of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command, said Iraqi troops became in control over 89.5 percent of territory at western Mosul, having killed more than 16000 militants since the launch of Mosul operations in October.

Iraqi government forces are eyeing the ancient, densely structured and populated Old City, the place where Islamic State’s supreme leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared the establishment of an “Islamic Caliphate” in 2014. Troops besieged the area for weeks from the south, but turned to the northwestern axis to invade the city earlier this month. IS fighters are believed to have been holding hundreds of thousands at that area as human shields.

Captain Ali al-Daraji, from the army’s Counter-Terrorism Service, told Shafaaq News earlier on Tuesday troops had isolated the 17 Tamuz (July 17th), from al-Refaie and al-Najjar districts from each other, encircling militants in the alleys and streets of each.

Lieutenant-General Abdul Ghani al-Assadi, CTS commander, said the situation makes the Old City the only refuge left for militants.

“The enemy is on the brink of total defeat in Mosul,” U.S. Air Force Colonel John Dorrian, a spokesperson of the U.S.-led coalition backing Iraqi troops, told a news conference in Baghdad on Tuesday, adding that the coalition had destroyed 200 underground tunnels and 300 vehicles belonging to the militants.