BAGHDAD 

Iraqi armed forces on Monday began the second phase of an ongoing operation aimed at "liberating" the northern city of Mosul from the Daesh terrorist group, Iraqi state television reported Monday.

According to news reports, fresh army troops backed by Iraqi counter-terrorism forces are advancing on the city along three axes from the east and southeast and now hope to capture Mosul’s Tel Keif district.

Since the operation began on Oct. 18, dozens of villages on the city’s outskirts have been captured from the terrorist group.

On Oct. 18, the Iraqi army, backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, launched a wide-ranging operation to retake Mosul -- the country’s second-largest city and capital of Iraq’s Nineveh province -- which Daesh overran in mid-2014.

Reporting by Haydar Hadi : Writing by Emin Avundukluoglu