BAGHDAD, Iraq – The Iraqi army has claimed that more than 16,000 ISIS militants have been killed since the offensive to recapture Mosul from ISIS began last October.
Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool told reporters in Baghdad that 16,467 ISIS militants were killed by the joint offensive of the Iraqi and Kurdish security forces, backed by the US-led Global Coalition against ISIS in the five-month military operation to reclaim Iraq’s second-largest city of Mosul.
This comes as the US spokesperson for the coalition had told Rudaw on May 5 that there are fewer than 1,000 militants left in Mosul fighting against the Iraqi forces in the last remaining districts of Western Mosul, located to the right bank of the Tigris River that bisects the city.
The Iraqi Official said that they have also taken 394 ISIS militants as prisoners.
Rasool added that the extremist group controls about a tenth of the Western Mosul.
He was talking in a joint press conference also attended by the spokesperson of the coalition, Peshmerga, Iraqi interior ministry and the Iraqi air force.
The Iraqi forces have made some quick advances against the ISIS in the city as various forces, including the US-trained Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) and the elite Rapid Response Force, attacked ISIS-held areas from different sides, creating pressure on ISIS’ ability to coordinate a defense.
The coalition of forces have also destroyed 697 car bombs, 889 of various mortars, and 6,000 explosive devices (IEDs), and 76 bomb making factories, Rasool claimed.
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