Intense Fighting Underway as Security Troops Resume Advances at Mosul’s Old City

Rasa - Iraqi government troops engaged in intense fighting with the ISIL terrorists on Sunday as they continued incursions into ISIL’s last havens in Western Mosul’s Old City.

News ID: 429943

Date: 28 May 2017 - 19:03

RNA - Iraqi Army warplanes bombarded two ISIL locations in Zanjili district, South of the strategic Old City, the group’s last holdout in western Mosul, Rudaw reported.

Fierce encounters continue also at neighboring al-Sihha, where troops regained control by 70 percent, with militants encircled inside the Old City, according to the Kurdish-run network, which added that IS fighters attacked the troops with seven booby-trapped cars.

Iraqi commanders had predicted the battle against ISIL in Mosul to end before the holy month of Ramadan, which started Saturday.

Earlier this month, the Iraqi command said it moved towards the Old City from the northwest, having besieged the area for weeks from the south.

The Old City, with its narrowly structured alleyways, and with hundreds of thousands of civilians believed to be stranded inside, was the place where ISIL declared the establishment of its rule in Iraq in 2014.

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