Iraqi forces battling the Islamic State group in Mosul are approaching the Tigris River, which runs through the centre of the city, the spokesman for the Counter-Terrorism Service said Saturday. Iraq launched a massive operation on October 17 to retake Mosul from the jihadists, who seized the city more than two and a half years ago, and its forces have recaptured a number of neighbourhoods on the east side of the river.

The smaller but more densely populated west side of Iraq's second city remains completely under IS control. Counter-Terrorism Service forces "are about 500 metres (yards) from the fourth bridge," spokesman Sabah al-Noman said, referring to the southernmost bridge across the Tigris in Mosul.

In the early hours of Friday, CTS forces advanced using night-vision equipment in Al-Muthannah and retook the district, Noman told reporters in the Bartalla area east of Mosul. "This operation was precisely planned; in fact we have been working on it for almost a week," he said, adding that it "surprised the enemy." The CTS and the Rapid Response Division are the two elite units leading the advance against IS in Mosul. A commander said that Rapid Response forces had recaptured the Al-Salam hospital, where troops were cut off and mauled by the jihadists early last month. "Rapid Response forces... are in control of Al-Salam Hospital and the medical college and Al-Shifa Hospital," Staff Lieutenant General Abdulamir Yarallah said in a statement.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2017