Local women from Khalidia, located south of Mosul, prepared rice and meat for the soldiers to thank them for their effort.
One of the village residents, Abu Hashim said ISIS Militants didn’t value human life and were blood-thirsty.
“They came with no humanity or decency. If there is a woman, they would chase her, if there is a man, they would chase him. They destroyed homes, widowed women and orphaned children.”
Another man, Abu Ali, said, referring to Islamic State by an Arab acronym: “Before we were free, it was very difficult; we were hungry, thirsty and exhausted. But thank God when the security forces arrived, they freed us from the tyranny of Daesh.”
The offensive to seize back Mosul from Islamic State was going faster than planned, Iraq's prime minister said on Thursday, as Iraqi and Kurdish forces launched a new military operation to clear villages on the city's outskirts. Militants were using suicide car-bombs, roadside bombs and snipers to resist the attack, and were pounding surrounding areas with mortars, a CTS commander said. Mosul, the last major stronghold of Islamic State fighters in Iraq, is five times the size of any other city the militant group has held. Recapturing it would be a decisive blow to its self-declared caliphate. A U.S.-led coalition that includes France, Italy, Britain, Canada and other Western nations is providing air and ground support to the forces that are closing in on the city in an operation that began on Monday. The push to capture Mosul is expected to become the biggest battle fought in Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
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