According to a Saturday report carried by Russian broadcaster RT Arabic, Iraqi forces seized the Qadisiya al-Thaniya and al-Bakr districts in eastern Mosul on Friday.

The report added that they are now cleansing the areas and fighting pockets of terrorists who are still holed up there.

The mop-up operations came after the elite Counter Terrorism Service (CTC) pushed into eastern parts of Mosul last week.

"We are facing the most difficult form of urban warfare, fighting with the presence of civilians, but our forces are trained for this sort of combat,” Sabah al-Numani, spokesman for the Counter Terrorism Service, said earlier.

Iraqi security forces and Peshmerga fighters started the massive offensive against the Takfiri group on Oct. 17.

The recapture of Mosul would mark the Takfiri militants’ effective defeat in the Iraqi half of the territory they seized in 2014.

SA - 12