With the recapture of Muharabin and Intisar districts southeast of Mosul, the army is now in relative control of seven neighborhoods, suffering modest casualties despite sporadic sniper attacks.
Army officials tell Rudaw their next target is to push back militants along the Kirkuk highway which over the past two years has been used by the militants as an exit route.
"ISIS has lost the strength to defend itself and is aware it will face an inevitable defeat which is an explanation why they have booby-trapped the streets in the city," said Major-General Fadhil Jalil al-Barwari, the chief of Iraq's 'Golden Division' forces.
"Our greatest concern remains the civilians who still are in grave danger considering the indiscriminate ISIS shelling and their sniper attacks," Barwari said.
Located some 180 kilometers southeast of Mosul, Kirkuk and its surrounding villages still serve as a supply hub for the militants, despite Peshmerga forces patrolling the ethnically mixed areas.
The nearby township of Hawija, a bastion of past Sunni insurgencies west of Kirkuk, has been at the center of military attention over the year with both the army and Peshmerga troops tentatively planning to retake.
The militants still appear to enjoy the resources needed to make car bombs that are frequently sent into liberated areas of Mosul, and fatally targeting army's provisional bases.
Anti-terror units which arrived in the newly liberated neighborhoods of Intisar and Muharabin told Rudaw that at least 8 car bombs had struck army bases in the area on Saturday, a proof of continued ISIS resilience in the city despite their apparent defeat in the battleground.
"The people are cooperating with our forces, many of them risking their lives in order to rescue their city from the militants," Barwari said.
But despite the confidence of the general, ISIS militants managed to target areas close to where Barwari was staying twice on Saturday with bomb-laden cars.
"Nevertheless, our brave forces have the upper hand," said the general who nearly survived the explosion that rocked the district.
