US-backed Iraqi forces launched on Sunday a new push toward the Daesh-held old city centre of Mosul, on the western bank of the Tigris river, an Iraqi military spokesman said. Iraqi forces are fighting their way toward the old center of the city, advancing from the south and the southwest, Brigadier-General Yahya Rasool, spokesman for the joint operations command, told state-run television. Iraqi forces captured the eastern side of Mosul in January after 100 days of fighting and launched their attack on the districts that lie west of the Tigris river on Feb. 19. Their advance in western Mosul paused over the past 48 hours because of bad weather. Defeating Daesh in Mosul would crush the Iraqi wing of the so-called "caliphate" declared by the group's leader, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, in 2014, over parts of Iraq and Syria. Rapid Response soldiers, progressing from the south through the Dawasa and Danadan districts, are within a few hundred meters from the government buildings near the old city, a media officer with these interior ministry units told Reuters. Taking the sites of the provincial council and governorate buildings would help Iraqi forces attack the militants in the nearby old city and would be of symbolic significance in terms of restoring state authority over Mosul. The buildings themselves are destroyed and not being used by Daesh. US-trained Counter-Terrorism Service units meanwhile pushed through Tal al-Ruman and the Somood districts, in the southwest, Rasool said. "Federal police and Rapid Response Division forces are attacking Al-Dindan and Al-Dawasa neighborhoods," a statement from Iraq's Joint Operations Command said. Al-Dawasa includes the Nineveh governor's headquarters and other government buildings. Mosul is the capital of Nineveh province. "Counter-Terrorism Service forces are attacking Al-Sumood and Tal Al-Ruman neighborhoods, and the advance is still ongoing," another JOC statement said. The Counter-Terrorism Service and Rapid Response are two special forces units that have spearheaded operations in the Mosul area, while the federal police are a paramilitary police unit. Iraqi forces launched the operation to retake Mosul on October 17, recapturing its eastern side earlier this year before setting their sights on its smaller but more densely populated west. — Agencies
