Iraqi forces overwhelming IS in Mosul
Iraqi forces have won a string of swift territorial gains in Mosul in the fight against the Islamic State group after months of slow progress.
Government troops retook the eastern edge of a third bridge in Mosul Saturday and a cluster of buildings inside Mosul university, according to a senior Iraqi officer overseeing the operation.
IS fighters overran Mosul in the summer of 2014, announcing that their self-styled "caliphate" after taking a large swath of Iraq and Syria in a lightning surge.
Access to the city's central bank, a large taxable civilian population and nearby oilfields quickly made IS the world's wealthiest terrorist group.
Yet even as a punishing campaign of US-led coalition airstrikes has pushed the militants underground, IS leaders continued to use Mosul as a key logistical hub for planning meetings.
If recaptured by the Iraqi forces, IS territory in Iraq that once stretched across a third of the country would be reduced to small pockets in the north and west of the country.
Iraqi forces now control the eastern sides of three of the city's five bridges that span the Tigris river connecting Mosul's east to west.
At Mosul University, senior commanders said that Iraqi forces have secured more than half of the campus amid stiff resistance, but clashes were ongoing into the afternoon.
Iraqi forces entered the university from the southeast Friday morning and by nightfall had secured a handful of buildings.
"We watched all the IS fighters gather in that building, so we blew it up," said special forces Sergeant Major Haytham Ghani pointing to one of the blackened technical college buildings where charred desks could be seen inside.
"You can still see some of their corpses," he added.
Thick clouds of black smoke rose from the middle of the sprawling complex Saturday morning. By afternoon, clashes had intensified with volleys of sniper and mortar fire targeting the advancing Iraqi forces.
Iraqi soldiers at Mosul university said while they were still coming under heavy small arms fire, IS resistance was significantly less than they faced during the first weeks of the Mosul operation.
"We were targeted with only four car bombs where before (IS) would send 20 in one day," special forces Lieutenant Zain al-Abadeen said.
Medics operating a small field hospital in eastern Mosul said civilian casualties have dropped significantly over the past three days as Iraqi forces moved into government complexes like the university rather than dense civilian neighbourhoods.
