(20 Mar 2017) STORY
The battle for Mosul continued on January 3rd 2017, with Iraqi forces advancing in the Al-Karama neighbourhood to root out members of the Islamic State group (IS).
Since the Mosul operation started on October 17th 2016, Iraqi forces have seized around a quarter of the city.
Mosul is Iraq's second largest city and the last major urban area in the country controlled by IS.
Iraqi forces backed by US-support hope to drive IS from the city in the next three months.
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There was a series explosions on January 6th in the Al-Karama neighbourhood of Mosul, where the Islamic State group have been resisting an offensive by US-backed Iraqi forces.
Mosul, about 360 kilometres (225 miles) northwest of Baghdad, is the extremist group's last major urban bastion in the country.
Iraqi forces have retaken around a quarter of the city since the offensive began in mid-October 2016.
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Iraqi special forces entered Mosul University on January 13th in their latest advance along the eastern front as they battle Islamic State militants for control of the city, according to senior Iraqi officers.
The troops entered the university grounds in the morning hours and by afternoon, they had taken control of a neighbourhood on the northeastern edge of the university compound and the technical institute within the campus, according to special forces Brig. Gen. Haider Fadhil and Maj. Gen. Sami al-Aridi.
The university is in the eastern section of Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city which is divided by the Tigris River into roughly an eastern and a western half.
Sgt. Saad Jabar said that over the past two years since IS seized Mosul in a 2014 blitz that captured much of northern and western Iraq, the militants have had time to prepare for an assault by Iraqi forces, building tunnels and getaways across the city, including on the university grounds.
The push into Mosul University came a day after Iraqi army forces north of the city linked up with troops pushing in from the city's eastern edge.
Iraqi forces have largely surrounded Mosul, but the most significant advances on the city have come from the eastern front and in the eastern half of the city. IS still controls Mosul's west.
The university, founded in the 1960s, was one of the top educational institutions in Iraq, drawing students from all over the country and reflecting the city's once diverse ethnic makeup.
As the security situation in Mosul deteriorated following the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, enrolments declined.
After the city fell to IS in the summer 2014, the sprawling complex was shuttered, most of the professors fled and the university was quickly converted into a base by the militants who used its medical and engineering departments.
Residents fleeing Mosul say the university had been largely destroyed by airstrikes and artillery fire. The US-led coalition said that since December 29th, coalition planes have dropped at least 43 munitions on the university in a series of strikes targeting laboratories IS used to research chemical weapons, buildings used to build car bombs and other IS command and control points.
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Iraqi forces have begun to push Islamic State group (IS) militants out of the last remaining neighbourhoods between government-held territory in eastern Mosul and the Tigris River, which divides the city.
Iraqi special forces battled the militants onJanuary 16th in two eastern Mosul neighbourhoods as part of continued push towards the Tigris, according to Iraqi media reports and field commanders.
In the Andalus neighbourhood, the bodies of killed IS militants could be seen lying on the street.
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