RNA - Lieutenant Captain Abdulah Taha of the Federal Police said that the number of ISIL militants remaining in Western Mosul’s Old City now stands at 500.
Taha added ISIL militants are shifting locations swiftly across the district’s narrow streets and inside residential buildings in an attempt to create an impression that their numbers are much higher.
Meanwhile, the Iraqi Army soldiers continued their military operations in Western part of Mosul in Nineveh province, hitting hard the positions of the ISIL terrorist group to recapture Mosul’s Old City. Iraqi forces have been sweeping through Northwestern neighborhoods over the past few weeks in a way to invade the strategic Old City, after finding it hard to invade from the South.
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.
The Joint Operations Command said in May that more than 16,000 ISIL fighters were killed since start of Mosul operations in October.
Iraqi commanders also added that at least 90 percent of territories in Western Mosul is under Iraqi troops control, predicting to retake the city before the end of May.
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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