Sheghati added however that while the east of the city could be considered under government control, some work remained to flush out the last Isis fighters. Wednesday’s advance came after Iraqi troops over the past few days intensified their push into the last Isis-held neighbourhoods in east Mosul, closing in on the Tigris river. The Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, issued a statement saying that “work is underway to liberate” Ghabat and the area housing Saddam Hussein’s former presidential palaces in east Mosul. The task of retaking west Mosul is likely to be a difficult one for Iraqi forces. Mosul fell to Isis in the summer of 2014, when the militant group captured large swaths of northern and western Iraq.

Source: The Guardian January 18, 2017 17:32 UTC