Mosul battle day 6: Iraqi forces advance on Qaraqosh

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – On the sixth day of the Mosul offensive, the Iraqi army is advancing on the largely Christian town of Qaraqosh, also known as Bakhdida, in the Hamdaniya district southeast of Mosul on one of three active frontlines on Saturday.

“The Iraqi 9th armored division and associated forces are making advances to seize Hamdaniya district. They cleared the Hamdaniya general hospital and raised the Iraqi flag over it,” reads a statement from the Iraqi War Media Office of the joint operation command.

Qaraqosh is about 20 kilometres southeast of Mosul.

Iraqi 16 division forces are advancing towards Tel Kaif, 20 kilometres north of Mosul, according to the media office’s statement.

On Thursday, as many as 10,000 Peshmerga forces were involved in a three-pronged operation in the Tel Kaif area, making “significant advances” in “one of the largest ground-led assaults in the war” against ISIS, said the General Command of Peshmerga Forces on Twitter.

The Iraqi 15 division forces, along with federal police brigade 18, are making advances on the Qayyara frontline, south of Mosul, on Saturday. They have liberated the villages of Harara and Rasif north of al-Shura and are now advancing on the al-Shura area, the media office stated. 

On Friday, the Iraqi air force dropped more than 8 million leaflets throughout Nineveh. The information included cell phone numbers residents could call to pass on information and intelligence about ISIS militants, the media office stated.