DHAKA: Iraqi forces fighting so-called Islamic State (IS) in Mosul have broken through the front line without suffering any losses, a spokesman says.

Sabah al-Numan told the BBC that many IS fighters had been killed.

Government forces entered the city’s outskirts for the first time on Tuesday since the city was seized in June 2014.

Wednesday is the 17th day of the anti-IS operation, which involves 50,000 personnel including Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and Sunni Arab tribesmen.

Elite troops seized control of the state TV building in Kukjali on Tuesday hours after launching an assault on the eastern district and later breached the outskirts of the Karama district.

A BBC journalist traveling with them said they were facing stiff resistance.

But al-Numan, a spokesman for the Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) said, “We broke the front line of the centre of Mosul. We liberated a very important area which is the main gate for Mosul from the east”.

“We had a very tough fight with ISIS in this area and we could liberate it very fast and also without any casualties, in front of many dead and executed from ISIS.”

Mosul is last major urban stronghold of IS in the country.

BDST: 1204 HRS, NOV 02, 2016
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