Iraqi troops retake more areas in Mosul
BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi special forces fighting Islamic State militants in the northern city of Mosul seized a new neighborhood on Friday and took full control of a densely-populated neighborhood, where troops happened upon a residential complex for IS fighters, according to two Iraqi field commanders.
Lt. Col. Muhanad al-Tamimi of the special forces told The
Associated Press his men were now in full control of the Zohour neighborhood, more than a week after they first entered the district.
He said his men also captured the neighborhood of Qadissiyah-2, bringing to 23 the number of neighborhoods retaken by the special forces in the eastern sector of the city since the campaign to recapture Mosul began on Oct. 17.
Brig. Gen. Haider Fadhil of the special forces later told the AP on Friday that his men had taken over two adjacent, two-story houses in Zohour where IS fighters lived. In the garden, they found life-sized cardboard cutouts for target practice, he said.
The walls inside the two houses were adorned with posters of RPGs, assault rifles and artillery shells. Some posters had instructions for snipers and RPG users, he said. Flyers bearing the names of the fighters who slept in each room were plastered on doors, he added.