Iraqi forces kill dozen Daesh terrorists, destroy 4 bomb-rigged cars west of Mosul

Members of the Iraqi rapid response forces have carried out an operation in the western part of the strategic city of Mosul, killing a dozen Daesh Takfiri terrorists as government troops and fighters from the Popular Mobilization Units are battling to drive the extremists out of their last urban stronghold in the Arab country.

Lieutenant Colonel Abdel Amir al-Mohammedawi, a spokesman for the forces, announced in a statement on Saturday that the elite units of the Interior Ministry had managed to destroy four vehicles rigged with explosives and kill 12 Daeshis in the process.

Mohammedawi added that government forces continued to make territorial gains in western Mosul, and dozens of families were being evacuated from liberated regions.

Commander of Federal Police Forces Lieutenant General Raed Shaker Jawdat also said that his forces were making a steady advance in Mosul’s western neighborhood of al-Haramat. He said that they had killed 15 Daesh terrorists there. Eight vehicles belonging to the terrorists were destroyed as well.

Moreover, Nayef al-Shammari, a member of the Iraqi Parliament’s Security and Defense Committee, said on Saturday that Daesh terrorists were retreating from Zanjili and 17 Tamuz neighborhoods in western Mosul to al-Farouq district near Grand al-Nuri Mosque, where purported Daesh ringleader Ibrahim al-Samarrai aka Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi gave his speech on the formation of the terror group.

Elsewhere in the eastern province of Diyala, Iraqi army soldiers and fighters from the Popular Mobilization Units, commonly known by the Arabic name Hashd al-Sha’abi, have launched a major offensive against Daesh positions, trying to purge the areas of Hawdh al-Nada, Hamrin, Wadi al-Thalab and Talal Qazlaq from Daesh extremists.

Meanwhile, the Ninth Division of the Iraqi Army announced that government soldiers had detained the self-proclaimed Daesh police chief of Hamam al-Alil town south of Mosul.

There are reports that the high-profile Daesh figure had disguised himself among civilians fleeing the area.

Iraqi army soldiers and Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters have made sweeping gains against the Takfiri elements since launching the operation to retake Mosul.

The Iraqi forces took control of eastern Mosul in January after 100 days of fighting, and launched the battle in the west on February 19.

Daesh butcher in Speicher carnage arrested

Additionally, Iraqi security forces have arrested a Daesh commander wanted for the June 2014 massacre of hundreds of military recruits in the city of Tikrit, the capital of Salahuddin Province.

The media bureau of Baghdad Operations Command stated that the high-ranking militant commander, whose identity was not immediately available, was nabbed in Sheikh Awad village north of Baghdad.

On June 12, 2014, Daesh terrorists killed around 1,700 Iraqi Air Force cadets in an attack on Camp Speicher, a former US base. There were reportedly around 4,000 unarmed cadets in the camp at the time of the attack.  

An investigation committee later revealed that 57 members of the former dictator Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath Party had aided Daesh terrorists in massacring the Iraqi troopers.

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