Mosul

Iraqi forces have retaken more than a third of west Mosul from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a commander said, as Baghdad's troops fought March 12 to advance deeper into the city. Iraqi forces launched the operation to recapture west Mosul,  the most populated urban area still under ISIL control, on Feb. 19, retaking a series of areas as they advanced up from the south.

"I came [today] from a liberated Mosul… This is the first time that the Iraqi army is fighting with Kurdish Peshmerga forces side by side against ISIL [Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant] … [But] winning the war means nothing unless we also win peace," Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi said during a keynote speech at the fifth annual Sulaymaniyah (Suli) Forum last week, entitled "Beyond Da

In some rare good news for locals of the war-torn city of Mosul in northern Iraq, a 2,600-year-old Assyrian palace has been discovered underneath a shrine that was demolished by ISIS back in 2014, complete with untouched artefacts and marble sculptures.

The antiquities museum in the Iraqi city of Mosul is in ruins. Piles of rubble fill exhibition halls and a massive fire in the building's basement has reduced hundreds of rare books and manuscripts to ankle-deep drifts of ash.

ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has fled Mosul and has apparently delegated tactical control of the battle for the city to local commanders, US defense officials have said.

Iraqi government forces fighting to drive the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) from western Mosul have recaptured a main government building, a central bank branch, the Turkish consulate building and a museum that was ransacked by the group three years ago.

Iraqi soldiers are in control of the road linking west Mosul with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)-held town of Tal Afar, isolating jihadists in the city, a senior commander said on March 1.

Some 26,000 people have fled in the 10 days since Iraqi forces launched a push to retake west Mosul, amid fierce clashes between Iraqi forces and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants. 

Hundreds of civilians fled through the desert yesterday to escape fighting and privation in Mosul, joining thousands of others who left their homes as conditions worsen in the city's west.

Iraqi forces launched a major push on Feb. 19 to recapture the west of the city from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), retaking the airport and then advancing north.

Iraqi forces battling the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in west Mosul reached the city's southernmost bridge on Feb. 27, a key step in efforts to defeat the jihadists in their stronghold, a spokesman said, as thousands of civilians fled the fighting.