Iraqi security forces drove Daesh fighters from the center of a town just south of the militants' main stronghold of Mosul and reached within a few km (miles) of an airport on the edge of the city, a senior commander said, Reuters reported.
Lieutenant-General Raed Shakir Jawdat said security forces were in control of the center of Hammam al-Alil, about 15 km (10 miles) south of Mosul, although he did not say whether the militants had been pushed out completely.
The advance on the southern front comes days after Iraqi special forces fought their way into the eastern side of Mosul, taking control of six neighborhoods according to Iraqi officials and restoring a foothold in the city for the first time since the army retreated ignominiously two years ago.
Another unit advanced further north up the western bank of the Tigris river, Jawdat added. "Our elite forces have reached an area just 4 km (2 1/2 miles) from Mosul airport," he told Al-Hurra television channel.
Recapturing Mosul would crush the Iraqi half of a caliphate declared by Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi from the pulpit of a Mosul mosque in 2014. His Islamist group also controls large parts of east Syria.
There were no reports of further gains in the east of the city, and officers said the military was clearing areas it took in recent days.
