The US-backed Iraqi offensive to take back Mosul from Islamic State has gained fresh momentum with an armoured division trying to advance into the city from the northern side.
The militants are now besieged in the northwestern corner of Mosul which includes the historic Old City centre and the medieval Grand al-Nuri Mosque and its landmark leaning minaret where their black flag has been flying since June 2014.
The Iraqi army's 9th Armoured Division and the Rapid Response units of the Interior Ministry have opened a new front in the northwest of the city, according to an Iraqi military statement.
The attack will help the elite Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) and Interior Ministry Federal Police troops who are painstakingly advancing from the south.
"Our forces are making a steady advance in the first hours of the offensive and Daesh fighters are breaking and retreating," Brigadier General Yahya Rasool, a spokesman for the joint operations command, told state television
A US-led international coalition is providing key air and ground support to the offensive on Mosul, Islamic State's de facto capital in Iraq, which started in October.
It was from the pulpit of the Grand al-Nuri Mosque that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi revealed himself to the world in July 2014, declaring a "caliphate" that spanned parts of Syria and persecuted non-Sunni communities as well as Sunnis who did not abide by its extreme interpretation of Islam.
"An armoured division should not be going into narrow alleyways and streets but we will," Lieutenant General Qassem al-Maliki, commander of the 9th Armoured Division told Reuters.
"There are sometimes troop shortages or orders that require us to do so and we will do our duty," he said in an interview at a base southwest of Mosul.
The Iraqi army said on April 30 said it aimed to finish the battle for Mosul, the largest city to have fallen under Islamic State control in both Iraq and Syria, this month.
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