Six neighbourhoods on the eastern side of Mosul have been retaken from the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL), a top Iraqi commander said Friday (November 4th).

"Units from the Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) have today liberated Malayeen, Samah, Khadhra, Karkukly, al-Quds and al-Karama neighbourhoods in the eastern side of Mosul," Mosul operations commander Lt. Abdul Amir Rashid said in a statement.

But as bulldozers and tanks backed by airstrikes were pushing into the streets of Mosul from the east, they were met by fierce resistance from ISIL fighters, forcing some units into a partial pullback, AFP reported Friday.

Some armoured vehicles from the CTS returned from the streets of al-Karama a few hours after moving in.

"We were not expecting such resistance. They had blocked all the roads," said one officer.

"There are large numbers of jihadists... It was preferable to pull back and devise a new plan," the CTS officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Some CTS forces remained inside the city, however, and there were at least five regiments involved in the operation launched Friday, making it hard to gauge the extent of the pullback.