Alwaght- Iraqi forces have the Old City of Mosul, the last stronghold of ISIS Takfiri terrorist group in the country.
This major assault is expected to be final in the nine-month old campaign to liberate the city. The historic district is the last still under control of the Takfiri terrorists in the city which used to be their capital in Iraq. It is a densely-populated maze of narrow alleyways
Iraqi State TV has aired live footage showing thick black smoke rising from the Old City and gunfire echoing from inside.
It said leaflets were distributed urging civilians to leave through five "safe corridors".
"The army, counterterrorism forces and federal police launched an attack on the Old City," Staff Lieutenant-General Abdulamir Yarallah, who commands operations in Iraq's Ninevah province, said in a statement on Sunday.
Staff Lieutenant-General Abdulwahab al-Saadi, a senior commander with the Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service, told state TV he expects ISIS to put up a "vicious and tough fight".
Khaled al-Jawari, a colonel at the Joint Operations Command, told reporters that armed forces arrested 14 ISIS terrorists, including eight suicide bombers who tried to target the assaulting forces. He added that the army troops invaded Farouq neighborhood in the Old City from Bab Sinjar, and repelled four attacks by the militant group.
The UN says around 150,000 civilians are trapped in the ancient city center along with hundreds of ISIS fighters.
Bruno Geddo, the UN refugee agency's representative in Iraq, said ISIL had been capturing civilians and forcing them into the Old City and using the as human shields.
"We know that ISIS moved them with them as they left locations where the fighting was going on," Geddo said in Geneva.
With virtually no food, water or electricity left in the area, the civilians are "living in an increasingly worsening situation of penury and panic", he said.
Iraqi government troops regained control over eastern Mosul in January after three months of intensive military operation. Iraqi forces began late April to advance towards the enclave from the northwest.
The operations to liberate Mosul are being carried out by the Iraqi army and Iraqi pro-government fighters from Popular Mobilization Forces.
