01 November 2016•Update: 02 November 2016
By Ahmed Qassim, Ibrahim Salih and Haydar Hadi
NINEVEH, Iraq
Iraqi counter-terrorism forces on Tuesday captured Mosul’s eastern Kokjeli district from members of the Daesh terrorist group, according to an Iraqi army source.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Lieutenant-General Abdel-Wahab al-Saedi, who led the operation, said anti-terrorism forces had managed to "fully liberate eastern parts of the district".
The offensive was waged along two fronts after the neighborhood was entirely surrounded by Iraqi security forces, al-Saedi said.
The Kokjeli district is administratively part of Mosul city, which Daesh overran -- along with large swathes of northern and western Iraq -- in mid-2014.
In a related development Tuesday, Iraqi forces stormed the Al-Shallalat area, considered the northern gateway into Mosul, according to an Iraqi military officer.
"The Iraqi army’s 16th Division liberated the Al-Shallalat area and Al-Aghawat village north of Mosul," Ali al-Furayji, commander of the Mosul campaign’s northern front, told Anadolu Agency.
The Iraqi army also managed to retake Dijla City, a theme park located to the north of Mosul, according to the army commander.
"The 16th Division now stands only 1 kilometer from Mosul’s northernmost districts," said al-Furayji.
In additional gains east of Mosul, Iraqi forces on Tuesday wrested the villages of Khowaytela and Shahrazad from Daesh militants, Iraqi Army Captain Nabhan al-Juboury told Anadolu Agency.
On the same day, Iraqi forces captured Mosul’s state media building, over which they hoisted the Iraqi national flag, according to Iraqi state media reports.
On Oct. 18, the Iraqi army -- backed by a U.S.-led air coalition -- began a wide-ranging operation to retake Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city.
Since then, dozens of Daesh-held villages on the city’s outskirts have fallen before the army onslaught, although the terrorist group remains in control of the city.
According to the Interior Ministry, Iraqi forces have so far managed to establish control over some 1,440 square kilometers of Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the regional capital.
At a Tuesday press conference in the Makhmour district southeast of Mosul, ministry spokesman Brigadier-General Saad Maan said joint security forces deployed along the campaign’s southern axis had killed 778 Daesh militants since the operation began.
Over the same period, he added, "Iraqi aircraft operating along the same axis have neutralized 375 militants, while U.S.-led coalition aircraft have killed 149 others".
According to international media reports, more than 100 Iraqi security personnel and Pehsmerga forces have been killed since the Mosul campaign began more than two weeks ago.
