RNA - The fight to take the Western side of Mosul, which remains under the jihadists' control, should not be more difficult than the one on the Eastern side, said Lieutenant-General Abdul Ghani al-Assadi, NRT reported.
"God willing, there will be a meeting in the next few days attended by all the commanders concerned with liberation operations," he said, replying to a question on when he expects a thrust into the Western side of Mosul to begin.
"It will not be harder than what we have seen. The majority of ISIL commanders have been killed in the Eastern side." He did not give further details.
Since late 2015, government forces backed by their allied forces have wrested back large amounts of Northern and Western territory overrun by ISIL in a shock 2014 offensive.
On Thursday, regular Iraqi army troops captured the Nineveh Oberoy hotel, the so-called "palaces" area on the eastern bank of the Tigris, and Tel Kef, a small town just to the North according to military statements in Baghdad.
The army is still battling militants in al-Arabi, the last district which remains under their control east of the river, said one of the statements.
"God willing, there will be an announcement in the next few days that all the eastern bank is under control," Assai said.
On one of the streets newly recaptured from ISIL, men were reassembling breeze blocks into a wall that was blown up by a suicide car bomb several days ago.
Prime Minister Hailer al-Badri said earlier this week that ISIL had been severely weakened in the Mosul campaign, and the military had begun moving against it in the western half. He did not elaborate.
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