Photo: AA.
NINEVEH, Iraq: Iraqi forces on Tuesday captured a major district of Islamic State-held Mosul amid an ongoing army offensive aimed at ousting the terrorist group from the northern city.
"Iraqi forces have taken Mosul’s southeastern Al-Hay al-Senai district following clashes with IS militants," Khaled al-Saadouni, an officer in Iraq’s anti-terrorism agency, said.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, al-Saadouni said that Iraqi anti-terrorism forces had attacked the district from three directions.
According to the officer, 21 IS militants were killed in the ensuing clashes with Iraqi forces.
"Our forces also captured two IS militants, destroyed five IS vehicles and seized a weapons cache from the terrorist group," he asserted.
He added that one Iraqi soldier was killed and seven others injured in the melee.
-Airstrike
In a related development the same day, nine IS militants were killed in an airstrike carried out by U.S.-led coalition warplanes in eastern Mosul.
"They were killed when an unmanned aerial drone struck a house that the militants were using as a headquarters," Saleh al-Ezi, an Iraqi police officer, told Anadolu Agency.
The Iraqi military, backed by U.S.-led coalition warplanes and local allies on the ground, is currently engaged in a major offensive aimed at ousting IS from Mosul, which the group overran in 2014.
Since the operation began last October, Iraqi forces have reportedly recaptured more than a quarter of Mosul, once considered Iraq’s second largest city in terms of population.
Despite initial expectations that the city would be retaken by year’s end, Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi said last week that at least three more months would be required to completely extirpate IS from Iraq.
