Battle for Mosul Day 72: 40 of 56 Mosul Districts Liberated from ISIL

Iraqi Forces Liberate 40 of 56 Mosul Districts from ISIL

Iraqi Foreign Minister said that government forces have liberated all but 16 of the districts in Mosul from the ISIL militant group.

Iraqi government forces have liberated all but 16 of the districts in Mosul from the ISIL militant group, Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim Jafari, Sputnik reported.

“Most of Mosul and its surroundings in Nineveh province have been liberated. This is 40 out of 56 districts. Work is beginning to liberate the remaining 16 districts,” Jafari said.

The Iraqi diplomat attributed a slowdown in the campaign to the terrorists’ use of civilians as human shields, as well as “vast stocks of modern weapons.”

Hundreds of Displaced Families Return Liberated Areas in Mosul

A member of Iraq’s Nineveh provincial council announced the return of hundreds of displaced families to their liberated areas in the left coast of Mosul city after being guaranteed by members of the provincial council.

“Hundreds of Nineveh’s displaced families, who had taken refuge to the camps of Cham Hassan and Khazar as housing, have returned to the liberated areas in the Eastern side of the left coast”, said the Iraqi official Hossam al-Din al-Abbar, Badr News reported.

He added that those families had been returned to their homes in the left coast after being guaranteed by members of the provincial council to prevent the presence of any collaborator with ISIL terror group.

Iraqi PM: Three Months Needed to Rout ISIL Terror Group

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said it would take three months to rout ISIL militants, as Iraqi forces and their allies continue to fight against the terror outfit to dislodge the group from Iraqi city of Mosul.

Abadi previously said the city would be retaken by the end of this year but commanders say the operation has been slowed by the need to protect civilians who have mostly stayed in their homes rather than fleeing as was expected, Iraqi News reported.

Responding to recent comments by a commander of the US-led coalition that it would take as long as two years to eliminate ISIL and its cells in Iraq and Syria, Abadi said that the Americans were “very pessimistic”.

ISIL Chief’s Top Aide Captured by Iraqi Forces in Mosul

Iraqi security forces detained at least 15 top ISIL members, including a top aide to the terror group’s chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, during an operation on the western banks of the Northern city of Mosul, a security source said.

The security source in Nineveh Province said Iraqi security forces, tipped off by local residents about the terrorists’ hideout in al-Bakr neighborhood, managed to capture Abu Harith al-Matyooti along with fourteen other ISIL members, including some of the group’s informants and intelligence elements during the raid.