Islamic State killed in wars to date

A few hours later, as the sun set Tuesday evening, the trap was sprung.

The militants, who have controlled Mosul since they took it over in mid-2014, have hit the advancing soldiers with suicide auto bombs, mortar barrages, sniper attacks and ambushes launched through a network of tunnels under residential areas.

“We thought we were going to die, all we could think about was saving our lives”, Pvt. “They may be caught in the crossfire, but if they stay they may also be reached by rockets and otherwise they may be facing penury over the full winter”, Geddo said, using an acronym to refer to the Islamic State group. Last week, the United Nations said in a report that almost 2,000 members of the Iraqi forces were killed last month, but after coming under fire from the media arm of the Iraqi military, it announced it would discontinue publishing casualty figures for Iraq’s security forces.

The official said the coalition had diminished IS’s ranks to such a level that the simultaneous attacks being waged on Mosul in Iraq and Raqa in Syria, the jihadists last remaining major power centres, have been possible.

The Iraqi forces were able to capture the area, but on Wednesday faced several counter-attacks and six vehicle bombings.

Coalition spokesman Colonel John Dorrian had earlier said that in Mosul, IS was turning to adolescent fighters as its hardcore warriors got wiped out.

On Wednesday morning, Iraqi special forces were pulled away from another front in eastern Mosul and tasked with launching a rescue mission.

The elite Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) has spearheaded the drive into Mosul in the past month, retaking several neighbourhoods in the east of the city.

As Iraqi forces retreated, US -led warplanes hit both the hospital and the abandoned Iraqi army vehicles.

Troops who briefly captured a hospital, believed to be an ISIL based were forced to retreat, but managed to establish a base nearby following days of fierce fighting in the east of the city.

The official says coalition airstrikes could be more aggressive in places like Mosul, where Iraqi troops are battling to retake the city, but civilian casualties are a risk.

Almost 2,000 soldiers and hundreds of civilians were killed in Iraq in November, the United Nations said on 2 December, in a “staggering” spike in deaths coinciding with operations to retake the Islamic State-held city of Mosul.

British hostage John Cantlie has appeared in a new video released by the Islamic State (IS) terror group, reports an worldwide group that tracks online activity of terrorist organisations. The video could not be independently verified.

The command of the Iraqi armed forces on Thursday on denied reports that it had mistakenly bombed civilian targets in the western town of Qaim, held by Daesh terrorist group.

Saadi said the army was now occupying a position almost one kilometer (less than a mile) from the hospital, which a 9th Division commander said had been used by IS as a command centre.

The men asked to have their photograph taken beside Jubbouri and said she would be awarded the home of an Islamic State fighter in Ganous after it was liberated.

“They started to appear and attack from every corner, every street and every house near the hospital”, said the officer who declined to be identified because he was not authorised to speak to the media.