After fierce battles that lasted for more than eight hours, the Iraqi forces on Friday (May 12th) recaptured the neighbourhood of al-Islah al-Zerai in western Mosul from the "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS).
"Our joint forces have fully liberated the neighbourhood and raised the Iraqi flag on its buildings," Ninawa operations commander Lt. Gen. Abdul Ameer Rashid Yarallah said in a statement to the press.
Sixty-five families who were being held by ISIS to use them as human shields were freed, Yarallah said, noting that they have been provided with urgent assistance.
Joint Iraqi Operations Command spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasul told Diyaruna that "the collapse of the remaining ISIS cells in Mosul and the liberation of areas one after the other make us confident that the full liberation will be very soon".
