Daesh car bombs kill dozens in southeast Mosul

At least 30 people have been killed and 60 others injured in a series of car bomb attacks that hit the Iraqi city of Mosul on Thursday.

Separate attacks targeted a stadium, an outdoor market as well as the al-Rahman grand mosque in the southeastern Kokceli neighborhood of Mosul around noon, a security source said.

Women and children were among the casualties of the attack which came as the Takfiri extremists are losing ground in the face of operations by government forces and allied fighters to retake the city.

Pro-government fighters from Popular Mobilization Units, commonly known by the Arabic word Hashd al-Sha’abi, as well as counter-terrorism personnel were among the wounded as well.

Later on Thursday, the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group claimed car bomb attacks in the southeastern Kokceli neighborhood of Mosul.

Earlier in the day, Iraqi government forces uncovered a cache of 120mm mortar shells and Katyusha rockets in the Shalalat area, located about seven kilometers northeast of Mosul.

Daesh militants were apparently using the munitions to launch attacks against security forces. Iraqi soldiers also found several military uniforms and compact disks at the site.

Additionally, Iraqi army troops found and defused 45 improvised explosive devices, which had been planted on the southern outskirts of Mosul to slow the advance of government troops and their allies.

The Iraqi Defense Ministry further said 70 Daesh militants had been killed during a string of airstrikes across the northern province of Nineveh, the chief city and capital of which is Mosul.

The ministry said the precise aerial attacks struck a gathering of the terrorists south of the Tal Abta region, leaving 20 senior militant commanders and 50 extremists dead.

Iraqi fighter jets also carried out an airstrike in the Akashat desert area in the western province of Anbar, destroying an arms depot as well as a workshop used for making booby-trapping vehicles.

Another Daesh bomb-making workshop was bombed in the al-Sakrah village, situated about 240 kilometers northwest of Baghdad.

Iraqi troops, supported by fighters from Hashd al-Sha’abi and Kurdish Peshmerga forces, are in the midst of a joint operation launched on October 17 to retake Mosul from Daesh terrorists.

The International Organization for Migration said on Sunday that 103,872 people have been displaced ever since the operations began.

Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday that Daesh terrorists in Mosul were deliberately targeting the civilians who declined to join their ranks in the fight against Iraqi forces.

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