Iraq Forces Retake Government HQ, Bridgehead in Mosul

Iraq announced Tuesday that its forces have retaken the provincial government headquarters and a second bridgehead from the ISIL terrorist group in west Mosul.

The building was retaken in the city’s Dawasah District on Tuesday by a rapid reaction unit serving the country’s Interior Ministry, Lieutenant Colonel Abdel Amir al-Mohammadawi, a spokesman for the forces, told Reuters. “They killed tens from ISIL,” he said.

“The heroes of the federal police and Rapid Response liberate the government building for Nineveh province and control the second bridge (Al-Hurriyah Bridge),” the Joint Operations Command said in a statement.

Iraqi Federal Police stormed Dawasah, which also hosts other government buildings, on Sunday. The forces released a report on Tuesday, saying that 135 Takfiris had been killed and 24 of their bomb-laden vehicles destroyed during the operation over the past two days.

The operation to retake west Mosul — ISIL’s largest remaining urban stronghold — was launched on February 19, but the advance had slowed in the face of several days of bad weather until a renewed push began on Sunday.