Over 100 Daesh terrorists killed amid Iraq push to retake Mosul

More than 100 Daesh terrorists have been killed as Iraqi forces, backed by army air power, keep fighting their way into the northern city of Mosul, the last Daesh stronghold in the Arab country.

According to reports, Iraqi F-16 fighter jets bombed a gathering of senior Daesh figures at a hotel in Mosul on Tuesday, leaving some 67 of the terrorists dead.

Iraqi aircraft also destroyed Daesh tunnels linking the villages of Najmouk, Tal Yabis and Abbas near Mosul.

Meanwhile, reports said forces of the Popular Mobilization Units, known as Hashed al-Sha’abi, managed to liberate Abu Edham village southwest of Mosul after engaging Daesh terrorists there and killing an unspecified number of them.

As many as 29 Daesh terrorists also died in clashes with Iraqi soldiers in the al-Qabat district in the same area.

Elsewhere, in Shalalat area, located about 7 kilometers northeast of Mosul, Iraqi soldiers discovered a Daesh munitions warehouse.

On another front west of Mosul, Hashed al-Sha’abi forces took back the villages of Khabirat, Umm al-Shanin and al-Hawish from Daesh Takfiris.

Reports further said US-led airstrikes killed 10 militants at an arms depot in Mosul, which was used by the Takfiri group for making bombs.

Iraq launched an operation to retake Mosul, the capital of Nineveh Province, over two weeks ago. The battle has seen the army join forces with other Iraqi military forces, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds and Christians.

Some 4,000 to 7,000 Takfiri terrorists are believed to be in and around Mosul, which fell to Daesh in 2014, the year Daesh began its campaign of death and destruction in northern and western Iraq.

On Tuesday, the Iraqi military announced its forces had managed to enter “the Judaidat al-Mufti area, within the left bank of the city of Mosul.”

The city is split by Tigris River, with the eastern half of Mosul known as the left bank.

“Now is the beginning of the true liberation of the city of Mosul,” Staff General Taleb Sheghati al-Kenani, the commander of Iraq’s Counter-Terrorism Service.

Reports say Daesh has executed hundreds of people and seized tens of thousands of others to use them as human shields to slow the advance of Iraqi forces.

The Iraqi army is now trying to open humanitarian corridors to help the civilians caught up there escape to safe zones.

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