Iraqi forces on Tuesday reported progress in the US-backed campaign to dislodge the self-styled Islamic State terrorist group from Mosul, announcing the capture of a district just north of the city’s historic center.
With the loss of the Zanjili neighborhood, the enclave still held by IS in the northern Iraqi city has shrunk to two districts along the western banks of the Tigris River—the densely populated Old City center and the Medical City, Reuters reported.
Iraqi government forces retook eastern Mosul in January and began a new push on May 27 to capture the remaining enclave, where up to 200,000 people are trapped.
The Mosul offensive started in October with air and ground support from a US-led international coalition. It has taken much longer than expected, as the militants are fighting in the middle of civilians, slowing the advance of the assailants.
The fall of Mosul would, in effect, mark the end of the Iraqi half of the “caliphate” declared in 2014 over parts of Iraq and Syria by IS boss Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in a speech from a historic mosque in the old city.
In Syria, Kurdish forces backed by US airstrikes are besieging IS forces in the city of Raqqa, the militants’ de facto capital in that country.
About 800,000 people, more than a third of the prewar population of Mosul, have already fled, seeking refuge either with friends and relatives or in camps.
