Alwaght- Iraqi army advances further toward the northern city of Mosul on the seventh day of its operation to liberate the city from ISIS domination.
Iraqi national army is fighting in the center of the strategically important al-Hamadaniya district to cleanse the ISIS remnants from the region in the northeastern Nineveh Province.
Gaining complete control over the city puts Iraqi army at the gates of the provincial capital Mosul that is the main target for the operation.
On Monday, military forces and allied volunteer fighters closed in on the heart of the district, determined to take out the ISIS terrorists holed up there, Kurdish-language Rudaw television network reported.
In another development, the report narrated a Kurd commander as confirming that his forces have surrounded the town of Bashiqa where the civilians in the city have raised white flags over their homes to be distinguished when the forces enter the city.
Also on Monday, Iraqi forces entered the Bazwayah Village, to the east of Mosul. According to the federal police, as many as 57 from among 84 villages located to the south of Mosul have so far been liberated.
The terrorists are, meanwhile, reported to have fled Mosul in large numbers as the group is said to have lost the power to confront the advancing Iraqi forces on the ground.
Earlier in the week, the ISIS terrorists carried out a surprise attack on the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, which is situated in the nearby province of the same name.
On Friday, the provincial council’s security committee in Kirkuk’s neighboring province of Diyala, said security intelligence showed that the attack on Kirkuk’s provincial capital had been personally devised by Ibrahim al-Samarrai, otherwise known as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS group, as a plot to disrupt Mosul’s liberation.
