Battle for Mosul Day 21:

Only Remaining Bastion of ISIL in Sothern Mosul Falls

Rasa - The Mosul liberation operation is going to enter its fourth week as the Iraqi Army continues its rapid advances inside the city, while Kurdish fighters and popular forces push terrorists back from more regions in the outskirts, especially West of Mosul, to block ISIL's escape path to Syria's Raqqa.

News ID: 424855

Date: 06 November 2016 - 21:01

RNA - According to the Iraqi state TV, army and police forces recaptured the last ISIL stronghold South of the city, Hamam al-Alil town, and hoisted the Iraqi flags on government building in the last 24 hours.

The Iraqi police and army's armored units began the operation to retake Hamam al-Alil on three fronts around since Thursday, and liberated many villages as they advanced toward the ISIL-held town.

Iraq: 5 ISIL Warlords Flee Nineveh Province with Several Million Dollars

Five ISIL high-ranking commanders stole group money and fled the Northern Iraqi province of Nineveh, local media reported.

The stolen money was intended to be paid to fighting terrorists, Al Sumaria broadcaster reported, citing its sources.

"Five high-ranking Daesh commanders including a militant known as Abu Bara Kakhtani responsible for the group’s treasury fled, which coincided with the disappearance of money," the TV channel's source said.

The Daesh leadership ordered to find the commanders and execute them. According to the source, they left for another Nineveh city of Tal Afar, then for the town of Baa’j and further for Syria.

Iraqi Volunteer Forces Resolved to Cut Off All Nineveh-Raqqa Roads

Volunteer forces stay behind Tal Afar's gates to let army's special units and security forces to fight ISIL in the city, a spokesman said, adding that the popular forces aim to block ISIL movements from Nineveh province in Northwestern Iraq to Syria, specially Raqqa.

"We are liberating and purging the terrorists from the villages in the Western parts of Nineveh to reach Tal Afar and then surround it," Spokesman of Iraq's Hezbollah al-Nujaba Movement Seyed Hashem al-Moussavi told FNA on Sunday.

He underlined the importance of the Western parts of Nineveh province, and said, "Cutting off this axis will stop aid to the terrorists who are trafficking between Mosul and Syria and we can then fully separate Nineveh from Syria, specially Raqqa."

Noting that the popular forces don’t intend to enter the center of Tal Afar city, Moussavi said based on previous agreements, the Iraqi army and anti-terrorism forces will enter Tal Afar and the popular forces will only lay siege on the city and cut off the terrorists' supply routes.

He said in addition to cutting off the terrorists' supply routes from Iraq to Syria, the popular forces are also safeguarding the borders between the two countries and have facilitated capture of the terrorists in all parts of the region.

Leader of Hezbollah al-Nujaba: General Soleimani in Iraq

Sheikh Akram al-Kaabi, the leader of Hezbollah al-Nujaba, a major Iraqi Shiite resistance movement fighting the ISIL, announced that Commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General Qassem Soleimani is in Iraq along with other Iranian military advisors.

"The Iranian military advisors and Qassem Soleimani are in Iraq now," Kaabi was quoted by the Iran-based Arabic-language al-Alam news channel as saying in an interview with Iraq's Sumeria news on Sunday.

He also appreciated Iran's support for Iraq in fighting against the ISIL terrorists.

Iraq: ISIL Arrests 20,000 Tal Afar Citizens for Human Shield

Deputy Chief of the Nineveh Provincial Council Noureddin Qablan announced that the ISIL terrorist group has arrested thousands of civilians in Tal Afar city to use them as human shield.

"A sum of 20,000 citizens of Tal Afar, specially Abata Hill (Tal Abata) and Mahlabieh districts, have been detained by the ISIL terrorist group to be used as human shields," Qablan said.

He noted that the ISIL also forced hundreds of families of Tal Afar city to leave their homes and move to al-Ba'aj region and the Syrian territories.

"The intelligence obtained from the ISIL terrorists in Tal Afar confirms that most of the ISIL terrorists of Tal Afar are foreigners and only some of them are Iraqis," Qablan added.

ISIL Warlord Killed in Airstrike in Eastern Mosul

Iraqi military sources disclosed that ISIL's war minister and his deputies have been killed in an airstrike in the Eastern part of the city of Mosul in Nineveh province.

Abu Ayesheh al-Bilavi, nom de guerre Mohanad Hamed Ebrahim, and a number of his deputies who all bore foreign nationalities were killed in an aerial bombardment in Yarmajeh region in Eastern Mosul.

Unknown Gunmen Attack ISIL Governor's House in Mosul, Kill 2 Bodyguards

Local sources disclosed that unidentified gunmen attacked the house of the ISIL governor in the city of Mosul in Nineveh province on Sunday, and killed two of his bodyguards.

"Abu Mohammad al-Hayali, the ISIL governor in Mosul, came under attack by unknown assailants at his house and two of his bodyguards were shot dead," a source said.

Al-Hayali himself narrowly escaped the attack.

The source, meantime, underlined that the ISIL has declared a state of alert in areas under its control in Mosul city.

Iraqi Army, Popular Forces Advancing in Eastern Mosul

The Iraqi army and popular forces, including Hashd al-Shaabi, tribal people and Pishmerga, have started street fight against the ISIL terrorists in the Eastern outskirts of Mosul.

"Street fight has erupted between the Iraqi army and popular forces in al-Karama, Adan, al-Quds and al-Zahra districts in Eastern Mosul and the Iraqi forces have increased pressure on the terrorists and tightened the noose on them," a field source said on Sunday.

According to the source, the ISIL terrorists are burning car tires as a tactic to camouflage and prevent the Iraqi fighter jets' airstrikes.

The source added that as the Iraqi forces are advancing towards the Center of Mosul from the North and al-Bakr region, the anti-terrorism fighters have started massive operations in the Southern and Eastern parts of Mosul and have clashed with the terrorists in streets.

"They are now preparing for cleansing al-Ta'mim, al-Ekhla, al-Malayeen and the Industrial region of terrorists," the source said.

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