State TV says Mosul office liberated
Iraqi Media Network. File photo.
(IraqiNews.com) Mosul – Iraqi security forces liberated on Tuesday the state-run Iraq Media Network’s office in the city of Mosul from the self-proclaimed Islamic State extremist group, state TV has announced in breaking news.
“Anti-terrorism forces have entered the city’s first districts, liberated the Iraq Media Network’s building in the east side of Mosul, capital of Nineveh Governorate, and raised the Iraqi flag above,” the report said.
An operation by Iraqi security forces, codenamed “We Are Coming Nineveh”, has entered its 16th day to liberate the governorate, IS’s last stronghold in the country. The campaign reached the east side on Monday, with IS abolishing reference to Mosul as the capital of its proclaimed “Caliphate” and evacuating its camps and secret prisons in the Ghazlani, besides taking out its wounded fighters from the city’s hospitals to an unknown destination.
In a related context, Abdel Karim al-Kilani, media advisor to the Nineveh governorate council, said Islamic State militants are holding 100 former security officers captives inside an ancient church in Babd al-Bid in central Mosul. He suggested that the group holds the captives for fear of a popular uprising against its fighters as Iraqi forces continue to successfully advance towards the province’s capital.