13 January 2017•Update: 14 January 2017
By Amer al-Hasani, Mohamed Walid and Ali Jawad
BAGHDAD
Iraqi forces on Friday seized a government complex -- and other sites -- in eastern Mosul following clashes with Daesh terrorists, according to an Iraqi army source.
"Army counter-terrorism forces managed to capture the government complex, which includes [Nineveh’s] provincial headquarters," Army Commander Lieutenant-General Abdul-Amir Yarullah said in a televised statement.
Yarullah added that army forces had entirely "liberated" Mosul’s Al-Faisaliyah district -- in which the complex is located -- and the nearby Second Bridge, also known as Al-Hurriyah Bridge.
Lieutenant-General Abdul al-Wahab al-Saadi, for his part, a Special Forces commander in the army’s counter-terrorism agency, told Anadolu Agency that army forces had also successfully stormed Mosul University north of the city.
According to the army’s media office, Daesh has begun blowing up bridges on the Tigris River -- which runs through the war-battered city -- as Iraqi forces register gains on both banks of the river.
The U.S.-led anti-Daesh coalition lauded the Iraqi forces' progress in eastern Mosul.
"Work still needs to be done but ISIL's days in Mosul are quickly coming to an end," spokesman Col. John Dorrian said in a statement, referring to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, another name for Daesh.
Daesh overran Mosul in mid-2014. Once considered the country’s second largest city in terms of population, it is now one of the terrorist group’s last remaining strongholds in Iraq.
Iraqi forces have reportedly captured some 80 percent of Mosul’s eastern districts since a wide-ranging military campaign to retake the city began last October.
*Anadolu Agency Washington Correspondent Michael Hernandez contributed to this report
