Iraqi forces demolish Mosul car bomb factories

(MENAFN) Iraqi forces captured a neighbourhood in east Mosul on Friday, pushing deeper to the heart of Islamic State's Iraq stronghold and destroying three sites where it produced car bombs used in waves of suicide attacks, the campaign's commander said.

In detail, Lieutenant-General Abdul Ameer Rasheed Yarallah said counter-terrorism service forces spearheading the seven-week operation to retake Mosul seized the Tamim district halfway between the city's eastern edge and the River Tigris running through its centre.

The elite troops, part of a US-backed, 100,000-strong coalition of Iraqi forces, have been fighting street battles with the militants and now control around half of the city's eastern neighbourhoods.