Iraqi forces are pushing on toward the center of the strategically-important al-Hamdaniya district in the northeast of Iraq’s Nineveh Province, as part of operations to liberate the province’s capital, Mosul, and its nearby areas from the Daesh terrorist group.

On Monday, military forces and allied volunteer fighters closed in on the heart of the district, determined to take out the Daesh terrorists holed up there, Kurdish-language Rudaw television network reported.

The operation is part of the larger-scale push to retake Mosul, which the Takfiri terror group has declared as its so-called headquarters in Iraq. The city has been under Daesh control since 2014, when the terror outfit started ravaging the country.

Upon liberation, the district would serve as a bridgehead to retake Mosul.

A senior commander with the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, who are involved in the anti-terror operations, also confirmed to Rudaw that the town of Bashiqa in Nineveh’s Mosul district had been encircled by Kurdish forces. The network tweeted that civilians trapped inside Bashiqa had raised white flags over their roofs to alert Peshmerga forces of their whereabouts.

The terrorists are, meanwhile, reported to have fled Mosul in large numbers as the group is said to have lost the power to confront the advancing Iraqi forces on the ground.

Citing security sources, the website of Iraqi pro-government fighters al-Hashid al-Sha’bi, also known as the Popular Mobilization Units, said Daesh militants had set schools and mosques as well as a health center and a power station ablaze in the province’s al-Shourah district, located to the south of Mosul.

By Press TV