RNA - According to reports, at least six Iraqi soldiers suffered inhalation problems following a chemical attack launched by ISIL on Sunday which occurred in a recently-liberated area of Mosul, where the Federal Police and Rapid Response forces are advancing towards the old city.
The Spokesman for the Joint Operation Command in Iraq, Brigadier General Yahya Rasool, said that six soldiers suffered breathing problems from the ISIL attack, adding that the victims are now being treated at a field clinic.
Meanwhile, Iraqi security sources disclosed that missiles loaded with chlorine were fired at al-Abar neighborhood, injuring at least seven troops.
Terrorists of ISIL group had also launched a chemical attack in a recently-liberated area in Western part of Mosul on Saturday. The attack did not cause any deaths, only limited injuries to an unspecified number of Iraqi troops who were immediately treated after being evacuated from the area.
Officers in Iraq’s Federal Police underlined that the chemical weapons agents were fired from the Urouba and Bab Jadid districts on Saturday.
According to latest reports, nearly 400,000 people are trapped in the area controlled by the ISIL terrorists, as Iraqi forces make slow progress in liberating the rest of the second largest city in Iraq from the militants. Baghdad also announced that the number of people who have managed to flee the ISIL terrorists in Mosul has reached 500,000.
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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