The Iraqi army has sent reinforcements to eastern Mosul after ISIL fighters launched a ferocious counterattack last week, pushing back government forces and further slowing a nearly two-month-old offensive to retake the city.
Major-General Najim al-Jabouri told Associated Press news agency on Saturday that federal police and Iraqi army units had moved from the southern front to Mosul’s east, where most of the fighting is concentrated.
The move comes just days after ISIL, or the Islamic Army of Iraq and the Levant group, ambushed the army in the Al Salam hospital in eastern Mosul, killing several soldiers and forcing them to pull back. – READ MORE