Dean James III% AMERICA’S FREEDOM FIGHTERS –

Mosul, IRAQ — Several Islamic State leaders were arrested fleeing western Mosul to its south, military media reports as operations continue to eliminate the last few hundred ISIS militants in the city.

The Defense Ministry’s War Media Cell said they were arrested fleeing from Yarmouk district in the western region to the town of Qayyara in the south. One of them was the group’s general administrative official, while another was a top booby-trapping expert, Iraqi News reports.

Iraqi government forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition, have been fighting IS out of Mosul since mid October. Last Thursday, troops took over the Old City’s Nuri al-Kabir Mosque where ISIS first declared its self-styled “caliphate” in 2014.

Commanders say that, currently, there are are no more than 200 militants cornered at areas overseeing the western bank of the Tigris River, which bisects Mosul. Senior commanders were quoted saying that government troops were nearly 200 meters away from the river’s bank.

There are reportedly 100 ISIS suicide bombers remaining in western Mosul’s Old City district.

Iraqi security Services have occasionally arrested several militants hiding in the middle of civilians fleeing the battle fields. Many were arrested as security combed areas recaptured in the eastern side of the city which government troops took over late January.

The war against ISIS has displaced close to one million people, according to Iraqi and United Nations authorities, and civilians continued to flee as operations reached the last hideouts in the Old City.

God Bless.

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