‘Liberated’: Iraqi troops declare ‘full control’ of eastern Mosul
Plans are now being drawn up to retake the western part of the city, top Iraq commander says
US-backed Iraqi government troops announced on Wednesday they were in “full control” of eastern Mosul, after routing Islamic State militants from that part of the northern city almost exactly three months since the major operation started.
The achievement was a “big victory,” said Iraqi Army Lieutenant General Talib Shaghati, who commands the counterterrorism forces, describing the success of the Iraqi forces as “unprecedented”.
The “important lines and important areas are finished,” he said, adding that “there is only a bit of the northern [front] remaining”.
Shaghatai, who spoke to reporters in the town of Bartella, just east of Mosul, said plans were now being drawn up to retake the western part of the city. He did not elaborate on when that part of the operation would begin.
Wednesday’s advance came after Iraqi troops over the past days intensified their push into the last IS-held neighbourhoods in Mosul’s eastern sector, closing in on the Tigris River, which roughly divides the city. Stiff resistance by the militants, thousands of civilians being trapped in their houses by the fighting and bad weather had in the past slowed the advances of the troops.