By Babak Dehghanpisheh and Ahmed Rasheed NEAR HAMMAM AL-ALIL/BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) – Iraqi security forces drove Islamic State fighters from the center of a town just south of the militants' main stronghold of Mosul on Saturday and reached within a few km (miles) of an airport on the edge of the city, a senior commander said. Lieutenant-General Raed Shakir Jawdat said security forces were in control of the center of Hammam al-Alil, about 15 km (10 miles) south of Mosul, although he did not say whether the militants had been pushed out completely. The advance on the southern front comes days after Iraqi special forces fought their way into the eastern side of Mosul, taking control of six neighborhoods according to Iraqi officials and restoring a foothold in the city for the first time since the army retreated ignominiously two years ago.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iraqi-troops-southern-front-battle-last-town-mosul-114105781.html

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 5th, 2016 at 2:31 pm and is filed under World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.