Daesh strikes back in Iraq’s ‘liberated’ eastern Mosul

By Ahmed Qassim

NINEVEH, Iraq (AA) – At least one person was killed and another 30 injured on Thursday when Daesh terrorists carried out multiple suicide car-bomb attacks in eastern Mosul, according to a local security source.

"Three suicide attackers drove bomb-laden cars into Mosul’s liberated Kokjeli district," Brigadier-General Aziz Khaled al-Qureishi told Anadolu Agency.

"The car bombs went off near a security building and a local market," al-Qureishi said, noting that nine Iraqi soldiers had been among those hurt.

The death toll, he added, was expected to rise further due to the seriousness of the injuries sustained.

Thursday’s attack was one of the largest seen in the city since Iraqi forces wrested control of some 40 districts of eastern Mosul from Daesh.

In mid-October, the Iraqi army -- backed by U.S.-led coalition warplanes and local allies on the ground -- launched a major offensive to retake Mosul, Daesh’s last major stronghold in northern Iraq.

Officials in Baghdad have vowed to retake the city, which fell to Daesh in mid-2014, by year’s end.