Document #1394472
RFE/RL – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (Author)
Earlier this month, Iraqi forces, aided by the U.S.-led international coalition, launched the operation to capture the western part of Mosul.
Officials said the operation has captured 120 square kilometers of territory since February 19.
Iraqi officials also said troops could enter western Mosul in the next few days.
Mosul fell to IS fighters in the summer of 2014. The part of the city on the eastern side of the Tigris River was liberated one month ago.
U.S. officials said on February 20 that some 2,000 IS fighters were still entrenched in the city.
Some 750,000 civilians remain in Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city and the last IS stronghold in the country.
Officials have said taking the western part of the city could be particularly difficult because it contains older neighborhoods with narrow, densely developed streets. Iraqi forces will have a much harder time using their armored vehicles there.
On the western side of the city, government-supported Shi’ite militias were also reportedly on the offensive, in a coordinated drive to capture villages on the outskirts of the city.
Capturing the airport and the Ghazlani military base would be significant milestones in the government’s 4-month-old drive to push IS back.
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