Intelligence services seize Islamic State offices in eastern Mosul
Iraqi army forces. File photo.
A statement by the service said the offices were used by IS Russian and Tajik fighters, and were found to contain “an integral communication system”.
The facility also contained documents promoting Islamic State ideology both in Arabic and Russian.
The statement added that agents, searching another facility in Hadba and al-Kindi areas, also ran into mannequins which militants would clad with military uniforms as a decoys for advancing security forces.
Last October, Iraqi forces, backed by US-led advisers and fighter jets, as well as popular militias, launched operations to retake the city which fell to Islamic State militants in 2014. Iraqi generals said recently they became in control over 90 percent of the city’s eastern section and hope to move later to recapture the IS-held west.
The recapture of Mosul, IS’s last urban stronghold in Iraq, would represent the most remarkable victory over the extremist group in Iraq and deal the strongest blow to its influence in the region. Mosul was previously designated as the capital of the group’s self-styled “Islamic Caliphate”.