ALALAM – Iraq

The artillery of the army's Ninth Armored Division pounded the district of al-Quds from the army's positions in the nearby district of Kokjali. The long-awaited attack aims to relieve pressure on Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) troops who have spearheaded the fighting in eastern Mosul for the last month and have come up against the militants' lethal defenses.

Officers say they are engaged in fierce urban warfare, facing hundreds of suicide car bombers, snipers and militants exploiting a network of tunnels underneath residential areas to launch counter-attacks.

Meanwhile, Iraqi forces have begun shelling parts of west Mosul, residents said, in preparation for a new front against ISIS seven weeks into a difficult campaign to drive the militants from the city.

Federal police forces, stationed a few miles south of Mosul, on the west bank of the Tigris River that divides the city, have long said they aim to advance towards the airport on the southwestern edge.

Some 100,000 Iraqi soldiers, security forces, Kurdish peshmerga fighters and mainly Shi'ite forces are participating in the assault that began on October 17. The city is sealed off to the north, south and east, while to the west the Shi'ite forces have cut the road to Syria and have advanced close to the ISIS-held town of Tal Afar, about 60 km from Mosul, Reuters reported.

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