Iraqi forces capture residential district of W. Mosul

By Ahmed Qasim and Sarhad Shaker

NINEVEH, Iraq

Iraqi forces have managed to retake western Mosul’s Wadi Hajar residential neighborhood from the Daesh terrorist group, a military source told Anadolu Agency on Tuesday.

“Iraqi forces fought fierce battles with militants holed up in Wadi Hajar, located in Daesh-held western Mosul,” Colonel Ahmed al-Jubouri of the army’s Nineveh Operations Command said.

“Daesh’s influence in the city extends beyond this area which contains the group’s administrative headquarters and several military sites,” he added.

Wadi Hajar is the fourth residential neighborhood to fall to Iraqi security forces since operations began earlier this month to retake western Mosul.

Since then, Iraqi forces say they have “liberated” the city’s western Al-Maamoun, Al-Tayaran and Al-Jawasaq neighborhoods from the grip of the terrorist group.

In mid-February, Iraqi army forces -- backed by a U.S.-led air coalition -- began fresh operations aimed at purging remaining Daesh terrorists from Mosul’s western districts.

The offensive comes as part of a wider operation launched last October to retake the entire city, which Daesh overran -- along vast swathes of territory in northern and western Iraq -- in mid-2014.