08 July, 2017
Security sources said IS insurgents had infiltrated Imam Gharbi, some 70 km (44 miles) south of Mosul on the western bank of the Tigris river, on Wednesday evening from a pocket of territory still under their control on the eastern bank.
An Iraqi military spokesman says US -backed Iraqi government forces have retaken control of the medieval Old City of Mosul, the last area under the control of Islamic State (IS) militants in the city that previously served as the extremist group's stronghold in Iraq.
Thousands of Iraqi security forces, Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, Sunni Arab tribesmen and Shia militiamen, supported by US-led coalition warplanes and military advisers, have been involved in the battle to retake Mosul. Iraqi commanders told the Associated Press earlier this week that ISIS women are hiding among groups of civilians to target government forces through suicide attacks.
Iraq's state TV quoted a military spokesman as saying that the militants' defense lines were collapsing. At least 74 ISIS members were reportedly killed during their failed attempt to flee Old City.
Smoke billows over the Old City after several strikes as Iraqi forces continue their advance against Islamic State militants in Mosul, Iraq, Monday, July 3, 2017.
After taking control of the last stretch of fighting, the Iraqi Army has officially defeated ISIS in Mosul and liberated the ancient city.
The UN predicts it will cost more than $1 billion to fix basic infrastructure in Mosul.
The battle for Mosul has already displaced 90,000 people, about half the city's pre-war population, according to aid organizations.
ISIS captured Mosul in northern Iraq in a matter of days when it swept across northern and central Iraq in the summer of 2014.
