Bombings, mortar attacks claim 10 lives across Iraq

Police and medical officials in Iraq say at least ten people have been killed in a series of bombings and mortar strikes across the country as government forces and allied fighters press ahead with a massive operation to flush Daesh Takfiri terrorists out of the northern city of Mosul.

Sadiq al-Husseini, the chairman of the security committee in Diyala provincial council, told Arabic-language al-Sumaria television network that one policeman had lost his life and four others sustained injuries in a car bomb attack, which targeted security personnel in Mustafa Jawad Square near the entrance of Khalis town, located 80 kilometers northeast of the capital, Baghdad.

Another bomb struck refugee families as they were fleeing al- Hawijah district to the Turkmen-majority village of Turkalan in the southern part of the oil-rich province of Kirkuk.

Kirku’s police chief, Brigadier General Sarhad Qadir, said the bombing had claimed the lives of five civilians and left 13 people injured.

Additionally, five civilians were killed and 13 others injured when a barrage of mortar shells slammed into al-Zahour neighborhood in eastern Mosul.

Daesh forces 250 Iraqi families to evacuate eastern Mosul district

Meanwhile, Daesh terrorists have forced a total of 250 families in the al-Jazair district of eastern Mosul to leave the area, and seek refuge somewhere else.

Security forces also managed to wrest control over Zaytoun region and Qaryat Tawilah village east of Mosul. Five police officers were killed during the operations.

Furthermore, Iraq’s Joint Operations Command (JOC) announced in a statement that Iraqi army forces had retaken the police academy, motor vehicle registration office, cement factory and al-Hayakel district from Daesh Takfiris in Mosul, and raised national flags over them.

Pro-government fighters from Popular Mobilization Units, commonly known as Hashd al-Sha’abi, also thwarted a Daesh assault on al-Hathan village west of Mosul, and destroyed one of the extremists’ battle tanks.

Lieutenant General Abdul Ghani al-Assadi, the commander of Iraq's counter-terrorism forces, said on Saturday that government troops had identified and arrested 27 Daesh terrorists. The terrorists had disguised themselves as internally-displaced people. 

Moreover, Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters killed 30 Daesh militants and destroyed seven vehicles belonging to them during an operation southwest of Mosul.

Separately, Iraqi army jets hit positions of the Daesh terrorists in Tal al-Zalat region west Mosul, killing 23 extremists. 

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

The International Organization for Migration said on December 18 that 103,872 people had been displaced ever since the operations began.

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