Iraq to launch second phase attacks to liberate Mosul

(AhlulBayt News Agency) - Iraqi forces launched the multi-pronged "second phase" of the battle to retake eastern Mosul from terrorists on Thursday, a top commander said.

Iraqi forces punched into eastern Mosul after the massive operation to recapture the northern city from the ISIS group was launched on October 17, but progress slowed to a crawl.

"The second phase of liberating the left bank in Mosul was launched, and our forces began advancing toward Al-Quds neighborhood," Staff Lieutenant General Abdulghani al-Assadi, a senior officer in Iraq's Counter-Terrorism Service, told AFP.

Mosul, now the last Iraqi city in which ISIS still holds significant territory, is split by the Tigris River, with the east side referred to as the left bank and the west as the right.

"Now our forces clashed with the enemy and there is resistance," he said, adding that forces on the northern and southern fronts were also advancing.

Iraqi forces north and south of Mosul had so far remained outside the city, with the brunt of the fighting inside it being carried out by the CTS.

ISIS overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in 2014, but Iraqi forces by popular forces have since regained much of the territory they lost to the ISIS.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi had pledged that Mosul would be recaptured by year's end.

The operation for liberation of Mosul was initially scheduled to end by the end of 2016 but al-Abadi said Tuesday it would take another three months to retake the city.



/298