Iraqi troops entered Judaidat Al-Mufti in the left bank of Mosul to what a top Iraqi commander described as the start of the "true liberation" of the city.
Mosul is the last stronghold of the Islamic State group and has been subject to assault since October 17. The army announced that their forces have to penetrated into the ISIS-controlled areas of Mosul beginning with the recapture of Gogjali, one of the key villages. They have retaken the television station facilities of the local Iraqiya State TV on the eastern section of the City.
Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) troops have infiltrated the area in a blaze of heavy engagement in the last 48 hours. The assault was backed by air and ground bombardments by the U.S.-led coalition. Paramilitary troopers captured a few villages in the southwest as the Iraqi 16th Division army took some more villages in the Northern part of Mosul.
Kurdish Peshmerga troops have done their part as they advanced a three pronged assault from the east, north and south of the city capturing villages along the way. With the impending onslaught by Iraqi forces, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi issued a warning to the jihadists in the city to surrender or perish since they have nowhere to go. He said "We will close in ISIS from every place".
Inside Mosul are an estimated 4,000 to 7,000 jihadists which remained there from the group that captured regions of Iraq and Syria in an offensive in 2014. The group, under Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had declared a separate caliphate in the areas of the countries they captured. The only possible escape route for the jihadists is on the west of Mosul on the road to Syria.
However, the route was cut off by the army of mostly Shiite troops from Hashed al-Shaabi's Popular Mobilization group, which advanced from the north towards the town of Tal AfarHashed al-Shaabi's Po in the west.
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