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MOSUL, Iraq, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi security forces on Friday freed three districts from Islamic State (IS) militants in eastern Mosul, while the Iraqi F-16 fighter jets destroyed three sites producing car bombs, the Iraqi military said.
The commandos of the Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) pushed deeper into the heart of eastern part of the IS stronghold in Mosul, and freed three districts of Saha, Adel and Tahrir and raised the Iraqi flag on its buildings, a statement by the Iraqi Joint Operations Command (JOC) said.
The troops, so far, freed 27 districts from IS militants and started since the early hours of the day fierce street battles in four more IS-held neighborhoods in eastern part of the city, the JOC statement said.
The troops inside Mosul encountered stubborn resistance of the extremist militants, who are fighting in small groups and moving quickly throughout the districts, using suicide car bombs, as well as mortars and snipers, in addition to the using the population of the city as human shields.
The extremist groups frequently infiltrated behind the advancing CTS forces using tunnels or dozens of houses and buildings in the neighborhoods of the eastern side of the city, which locally named the left bank of the Tigris River that bisects the city.
During the day, Lieutenant-General Abdul Ameer Yarallah said in another statement that air strikes by Iraqi F-16 jets destroyed three factories making car bombs in Mosul and three weapons warehouses.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in recent report that the military operations in Mosul, have pushed some 82,000 civilians to flee their homes in the city and its adjacent districts and the number went up every day.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Oct. 17 announced a major offensive to retake Mosul, the country's second largest city.
Since then, the Iraqi security forces have inched to the eastern fringes of Mosul and made progress on other routes around the city.
Mosul, some 400 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, has been under the IS control since June 2014, when Iraqi government forces abandoned their weapons and fled, enabling IS militants to take control of parts of Iraq's northern and western regions.
