Almost all of eastern Mosul now under government control

A few parts of the eastern bank of the Tigris River are yet to be fully retaken, while regular army troops are still fighting the extremists in north-east Mosul

Civilians flee clashes between Iraqi forces and ISIL in Mosul's Al Zirai district on January 18, 2017. Muhammad Hamed/Reuters

BARTELLA, Iraq // Elite Iraqi forces have ousted ISIL insurgents from all districts of eastern Mosul they were tasked with recapturing, their commanding officer said on Wednesday.

The breakthrough means almost all of the city’s eastern half is now back under government control.

Lieutenant General Talib Shaghati said the Counter Terrorism Services (CTS), who have spearheaded the three-month-old offensive in city, had taken the eastern bank of the Tigris river.

Regular army troops were still fighting the extremists in north-east Mosul, however, according to a military statement. A few parts of the bank further north had yet to be fully taken.

“Today we celebrate ... the liberation of the eastern bank in Mosul,” Lt Gen Shaghati said in the nearby town of Bartella.

He said that recapturing Mosul’s western half, which the extremists still fully control, would be an easier task. Officers have previously said that the more densely populated west bank of the Tigris could pose additional military challenges.

Iraqi prime minister Haider Al Abadi said victory was near. “The promise of final liberation and total victory in Mosul has come close to being realised,” he said.

“Work is under way now to liberate what remains of the forests and palaces [along the eastern bank] and few areas” where ISIL militants were still holding on.

Bridges across the Tigris, which bisects Mosul from north to south, have been hit by US-led warplanes to prevent ISIL reinforcements joining the fighting in eastern neighbourhoods, and more recently by the militants trying to block a future westward advance by the military.

If the US-backed campaign is successful it would probably spell the end of the Iraqi side of the group’s self-styled caliphate, which also extends well into Syria, that it declared during a lightning offensive in 2014.

The Iraqi army, special forces and elite police units have operated in tandem to capture different areas of eastern Mosul. The army is mostly deployed in the north, the Counter Terrorism Services in the east, and the federal police in the south.

Army units advanced into the north-eastern neighbourhoods of Qadiya 2 and Al Arabi, the military statement said.

Mr Al Abadi said late on Tuesday that ISIL had been severely weakened in the Mosul campaign, and that the military had begun moving against it in western Mosul.

Residents said air strikes against deep inside western Mosul had increased in recent days.

More than a dozen missile strikes in the Yarmouk district targeted weapons depots and workshops the militants used to make explosives, and also destroyed two car bombs stored there, according to one resident.

Some raids had killed or wounded civilians, including in the Mosul Al Jadida neighbourhood and an industrial zone, residents said.

*Reuters