Iraqi army soldiers have wrested control of al-Salam Hospital situated on the left bank of Tigris River as part of their operation to liberate the strategic city of Mosul from the grip of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Daesh) Takfiri terrorist group.

Major General Walid al-Khalifah, the deputy of the army’s 9th Division, said the Iraqi national flag was hoisted over the hospital building on Tuesday.

He further announced the recapture of another Mosul medical institution, called al-Talimi Hospital, by the Iraqi forces.

Meantime, Iraqi army units advanced from southeast Mosul towards a bridge across the Tigris in the city center on Tuesday, in an attack that could give fresh impetus to the hard fought, seven-week battle for the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant’s (ISIL/Daesh) northern Iraq stronghold.

Campaign commander Lieutenant General Abdul Ameer Rasheed Yarallah was quoted by Iraqi television as saying troops had entered Salam Hospital, less than a mile (1.5 km) from the Tigris river running through the center of Mosul.

If confirmed, that would mark a significant advance by the army's Ninth Armored Division, which had been tied up for more than a month in deadly, close-quarter combat with ISIL terrorist group fighters on the southeast edges of the city, Reuters reported.

A colonel in the armored division said Tuesday's assault, launched at 6 a.m., aimed to push towards the river and ultimately reach Mosul's Fourth Bridge, the southernmost of the five bridges spanning the Tigris which splits the city in two.

The bridge, like three others, has been hit by the United States-led air strikes to prevent ISIL terrorist group sending reinforcements and suicide car bombs across the city to the eastern front, where counter-terrorism troops have spearheaded the army campaign.

The last and oldest bridge, built of iron in the 1930s, was targeted on Monday night, two residents said. The structure was not destroyed, but the air strikes made two large craters in the approach roads on both sides.

 New gains in southeast Mosul
Meanwhile, advancing Iraqi forces have pushed into the southeast regions of the ISIL terrorist group held city of Mosul.

Gunfire and blasts could be heard throughout the southeastern part of the city on Monday as Iraqi troops pushed ahead with their operation to purge Mosul of its ISIL occupants.

“We are now at Intisar neighborhood, Nineveh province. We are the defensive lines of al-Karama district and in front of us there is al-Salam neighborhood, which is the last point for the forces of the 3rd Brigade, First Division,” said the division’s commander.

In another event, the Iraqi army has announced that six villages located to the south of the city have been retaken from the terrorists.

“We've liberated six villages and we are heading to Hawija and we will liberate, God willing and then we will head to Mosul,” said an officer from the army's 17th Division.

Around half of the eastern side of Mosul has so far been liberated by the Iraqi army and volunteer forces that launched an offensive to retake Mosul, the last urban area in control of ISIL in Iraq, on October 17.
(Source: agencies)