RNA - Commander of Nineveh Liberation Operation Lieutenant General Abdul Amir Yarallah said on Friday that Iraqi forces had regained control over the villages of Old Rayhaniyah, New Rayhaniyah as well as Ghazilwah West of Mosul, hoisting the national flag over several buildings there, Arabic-language al-Forat news agency reported.
Separately, Commander of Federal Police Forces Lieutenant General Raed Shaker Jawdat said Iraqi Air Force unmanned aerial vehicles had struck ISIL positions in the Bridge district of Mosul, killing a dozen Daesh members in the process.
Jawdat added that a senior militant commander, identified as Abu Maria al-Roussi, and two of his close aides were among the slain extremists.
The media bureau of Iraq’s Joint Operations Command also announced in a statement that Iraqi military aircraft had bombarded a workshop used for rigging vehicles with explosives in the al-Salam neighborhood of Tal Afar city, West of Mosul, killing a number of high-ranking ISIL figures.
The statement noted that the workshop was completely razed in the aerial attack, and eight car bombs were also destroyed.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi announced in October 2016, the start of a military operation to recapture Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq which fell to the ISIL since 2014.
The Iraqi defense ministry announced earlier in January that the ISIL terrorist group has lost over 50 percent of its militants in the city of Mosul in Nineveh province as Iraqi troops have managed to recapture the Eastern part of the de facto Capital of the ISIL.
"The intelligence obtained by us indicates that there have been over 6,000 ISIL terrorists in Mosul and around 3,400 of them have been killed in battles with Iraq's joint military forces in the major city of Nineveh province," Iraqi Defense Ministry Spokesman Colonel Laith al-Naimi said.
He added that over 250 bomb-laden vehicles and the entire bomb-making workshops of the terrorists have been destroyed in Mosul which means that the ISIL has been paralyzed by the Iraqi forces.
The Iraqi Army started a new phase of its military operation in Nineveh province late February to drive the ISIL terrorists out of their bastion in the Western part of the city of Mosul.
With half the city under the control of Baghdad forces, the Iraqi Armed Forces will likely face heavier resistance in the Western part of Mosul, as the ISIL attempts to hold onto their final positions.
Local sources had disclosed that the ISIL is preventing civilians in the Western part of the city of Mosul from leaving the region in a move to use them as human shields as the terrorist group's positions are under intensifying attacks by various troops.
Commanders expect the battle in Western Mosul to be more difficult, in part because tanks and armoured vehicles cannot pass through the narrow alleyways that crisscross ancient districts of the city.
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