Iraqi Forces Enter Western Mosul, in Fierce Battle Against ISIS<br />2 Iraqi government-controlled 1 Eastern Mosul ISIS-controlled Western Mosul 2 Mosul Tigris Baghdad IRAQ 1 IRAQ Hamam al-Alil 10<br />Miles 2 Iraqi govt.-controlled 1 Eastern Mosul ISIS-controlled 2 Western Mosul Tigris 1 10 Miles Hamam al-Alil FEB. 26, 2017<br />Muhammadawi said that The liberation of the government compound is a step forward for our forces, a vital motivating position for us<br />By OMAR AL-JAWOSHY and SEWELL CHANMARCH 7, 2017<br />BAGHDAD — Iraqi forces trying to reclaim Mosul penetrated the western part of the city on Tuesday, retaking a bridge<br />and several public buildings during heavy clashes with the Islamic State, officials said.<br />Lt. Gen. Abdul Amir al-Muhammadawi, a spokesman for an elite unit commanded by the Interior Ministry, said<br />that the buildings retaken from the Islamic State included a courthouse where militants had carried out sentences including whippings, stonings and beheadings, and a building from which militants had thrown people to their deaths.<br />The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported on Tuesday<br />that about 46,000 people in Mosul had been displaced since Feb. 19 — including 13,350 on Friday alone — in the highest continuous displacement of civilians since October.<br />Civilians reported that the bombardment and gunfire were the heaviest since Feb. 19, the beginning of the operation to retake the western<br />part of the city — the country’s second-largest, where roughly a million people are trapped and living in desperate conditions.<br />Lt. Gen. Raed Shakir Jawdat, the chief of the federal police, said<br />that security forces had retaken a branch of the central bank; the archaeological museum; and a government compound.
