Alalam - Iraq

Speaking in the town of Bartella, 13 km (eight miles) east of Mosul, Lieutenant General Talib Shaghati said the operation to take control of the city involved attacking from both the east and west.

"The liberation plan of the city is to encircle the two sides, but now forces are advancing in the left (eastern) side and we are controlling the larger part of it.

We are also moving towards the right side to liberate it," he said.

The commander was speaking as if regarding the city from the north, which is commonly how the city is considered in the region, Reuters reports.

He added that assistance from Mosul residents has been a "significant" part of the operation.

"They helped provide us with information on ISIS' whereabouts, its movements and weapons.

We are trying in our efforts to spare civilians from harm," Shaghati said.

Kurdish and Shi'ite forces near Mosul have agreed to coordinate their operations in support of a US-backed offensive seeking to encircle and capture ISIS' last major urban stronghold in Iraq, US and Iraqi officials said on Thursday.

The agreement will restrict the movement of the terrorists in and out of Mosul and assist the encirclement of the city from the western side, according to the officials.

It came after Iraqi Kurdish and Shi'ite fighters linked up near the ISIS-held town of Tal Afar, west of Mosul, on Wednesday (November 23) in an advance that cut the militant group's supply route from the rest of the territory it holds in western Iraq and Syria.

The Iraqi military estimates there are 5,000 to 6,000 insurgents in Mosul facing a 100,000-strong coalition of Iraqi government units, Kurdish peshmerga and Shi'ite militias.

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