Iraq forces retake two districts of W. Mosul; 20 killed

By Ahmed Qassim and Serhad Shakir

NINEVEH, Iraq (AA) - At least four Iraqi soldiers and 16 Daesh terrorists were killed in Tuesday clashes near the Nineveh Train Station and the Baghdad Garage district in western Mosul, according to an Iraqi security source.

“Twelve Iraqi soldiers were hurt to varying degrees,” Army Major Abdel Wahab Abu Raghif told Anadolu Agency.

According to the officer, three gun-mounted pickup trucks were captured during the melee, along with a number of light and medium weapons.

While the two areas had been “entirely liberated” by Iraqi forces, Abu Raghif said, they still had to be cleared of a system of tunnels and bunkers used by Daesh fighters.

Earlier Tuesday, Federal Police Commander Raed Jawdat officially announced the recapture of the two districts.

In a related development, four Iraqi rapid-response personnel (affiliated with the Interior Ministry) were killed Monday evening when Daesh militants shelled their positions in central Mosul’s Bab al-Toub district, Ahmed al-Jubouri, a colonel in the army’s Nineveh Operations Command, told Anadolu Agency.

In mid-February, Iraqi forces -- backed by a U.S.-led air coalition -- began fresh operations aimed at dislodging Daesh terrorists from western Mosul.

The offensive came as part of a wider campaign launched last October to retake the entire city, which Daesh overran in mid-2014.