MOSUL, Iraq, May 25 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi security forces battling Islamic State (IS) militants on Thursday called on the residents of nine neighborhoods in north and at the edges of the IS-held old city center to leave their homes through safe corridors, the Iraqi military said.
"We ask all of you to leave and move immediately to the safe corridors that we will set up for you. You will find guides, protection and vehicles to transfer you to safe areas," said a statement by the Iraqi Joint Operation Command (JOC).
The statement named the neighborhoods of Zanjili, al-Seha and al-Shifaa, just north of the old city center and the residential areas of Bab Sinjar, al-Farouq, Raas al-Kore, al-Maidan, Bab al-Jadid and Bab al-Toub at the northern and southern edges of the city center.
The government wants to avoid civilian casualties, who have been used by the extremist IS militants as human shields, and in order to pave the way for the security forces to free the rest of the western side of Mosul, according to the statement.
The departure demand came as the security forces are preparing to initiate a new push into the remaining neighborhoods on the northern edge of the city center to advance deeper in the IS redoubt of Mosul's old city center, where roughly 400,000 residents are believed to still be trapped under IS rule.
Late in January, Abadi, who is also the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, declared the liberation of Mosul's eastern side, or the left bank of Tigris, after more than 100 days of fighting against IS militants.
On February 19, Abadi announced the start of an offensive to drive extremist militants out of the western side of Mosul.
However, the western part of Mosul, with its narrow streets and heavily populated neighborhoods, appears to be a bigger challenge to the Iraqi forces.
Mosul, 400 km north of Iraq's capital Baghdad, has been under IS control since June 2014, when government forces abandoned their weapons and fled, enabling IS militants to take control of parts of Iraq's northern and western regions.
