Iraqi special forces swept through the campus of Mosul University on Sunday to clear it of any remaining Daesh militants after taking full control of the area, a military spokesman said, a major step in the massive operation to retake the Daesh group-held city of Mosul.
The spokesman for the Joint Military Command, Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool, declared the campus was under the full control of Iraqi special forces, officially known as the Counter Terrorism Service (CTS), who raised the Iraqi flag over its buildings.
The CTS troops drove the militants back inside the strategically located university complex and seized clusters of buildings including colleges on Saturday, a crucial advance toward recapturing all areas of Mosul east of the river.
“The university is completely liberated and forces are sweeping the complex for any hiding militants,” CTS spokesman Sabah Al-Numan told Reuters by phone on Sunday. “Most buildings are booby-trapped so we’re being cautious.”
“We’re not stopping,” he added, saying the CTS was working to push into areas next to the university. Parts of the sprawling campus overlook neighboring districts in eastern Mosul and toward the river. Taking the entire east bank of the Tigris, which bisects Mosul from north to south, will allow Iraqi forces to begin assaults on the city’s west, which Daesh still holds.
On Saturday elite rapid response units of Iraq’s federal police recaptured large areas in the southeast, securing a stretch along the bank.
Loss of Mosul could spell the end of the Iraqi side of Daesh’s self-styled caliphate, which it declared from the city after sweeping through vast areas of Iraq and Syria.
Iraqi forces say they are close to recapturing the entire eastern bank. They are backed by US-led air power in an offensive launched in October to retake the city.
The campaign involves a 100,000-strong force of Iraqi troops, Kurdish fighters and Shiite militias.
Forces have made rapid advances since the start of the year, aided by new tactics and improved coordination, military officials say.
The troops searched campus buildings and removed bombs left by Daesh militants, Brig. Gen. Haider Fadhil of the special forces said. Fadhil added that the troops also entered the nearby Andalus neighborhood, which he expected would be fully retaken later in the day.
Iraqi forces had entered the university grounds Friday and managed to secure more than half of the campus the next day amid tough resistance from Daesh militants, who mainly deployed sniper and mortar fire to slow down the advancing troops.
Sunday’s progress is the latest in a string of swift territorial gains in recent weeks by the US-backed Iraqi military. Some 30,000 troops — a force that includes not only Iraq’s conventional army but an array of other armed groups, including Shiite and Sunni paramilitary troops and Kurdish fighters — are taking part in the Mosul offensive which begun Oct. 17.
The Daesh group captured Mosul in 2014 along with nearly a third of Iraqi territory and large parts of neighboring Syria. Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul is the last major Daesh urban bastion in the country.

Source : Arab News