Iraqi forces gained ground from the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL) in Mosul and have deployed snipers in the Old City to target the extremists, officers said on Tuesday (March 21st).
Iraqi Interior Ministry forces are now battling ISIL in the Old City, where hundreds of thousands of civilians are believed to reside, while the Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) is fighting to reclaim areas further west.
Iraq's Joint Operations Command announced on Tuesday that CTS forces had recaptured the al-Risala and Shaqaq Nablus areas of west Mosul.
In the Old City, "dozens of snipers" have been deployed atop buildings to target the extremists as Iraqi forces seek to advance toward the al-Nuri mosque where ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi made his only known public appearance in 2014, calling on Muslims to "obey" him.
