Alwaght- Iraqi army backed by popular forces and federal police launched an offensive on Saturday to liberate last ISIS-held enclave in western Mosul, the terrorist group's last bastion in the Arab country.
"The joint forces have begun liberating the remaining districts," said an Iraqi military statement today.
The push inside the Old City coincides with the start of the holy fasting month of Ramadan. Its prime targets is the medieval Grand al-Nuri mosque and its landmark leaning minaret where ISIS black flag has been flying since mid 2014.
On Friday, Iraqi air force dropped leaflets calling on residents to escape the enclave covers mainly the Old City center and three adjacent districts of the western Mosul.
Eastern Mosul was liberated from ISIS on 24 January 2017 after some 100 days fires fighting with e terrorist group. Iraqi troops were then regrouped and began the second phase of Mosul Liberation Operation to recapture western Mosul on 19 February 2017.
Now in its eighth month, The Mosul Op has taken longer than planned as ISIS terrorists are dug in among civilians, fighting back with booby traps, suicide cars and motor-bikes, snipers and mortar fire.
The forces hope to capture in the next few days the mosque where Baghdadi revealed himself to the world and announced the "caliphate" that also spans part of Syria.
The United Nations expressed "deep concern" for the hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped behind ISIS lines, in a statement on Saturday from the organization's under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, Stephen O'Brien.
"Although the UN is not present in the areas where fighting is occurring, we have received very disturbing reports of families being shut inside booby-trapped homes and of children being deliberately targeted by snipers," he said.
