Hundreds of civilians fled Zanjili district in western Mosul on Saturday as Iraqi forces fully seized it from Islamic State, Iraqi army officers said.
An Iraqi military officer said the Iraqi army’s 9th Armoured Division had recaptured the district and started a campaign to clear roads and buildings from bombs and explosive materials left behind by Islamic State to impede advance by Iraqi forces.
Lieutenant General Qassem al-Maliki of the 9th Armoured Division said a large number of families had been freed from Islamic State and evacuated from the district to safer area.
Another 9th division officer said his battalion had freed 150 families and other units freed almost as many.
Families fleeing on Saturday were not being shot at by Islamic State in contrast to the day before, an aid worker at the scene, Dave Eubank, said.
About 700,000 people, about a third of the pre-war population of Mosul, have already fled, seeking refuge either with friends and relatives or in camps.
With the loss of Zanjili, the Islamic State-held enclave in Mosul has shrunk to two districts alongside the western bank of the Tigris river — the densely populated Old City centre and the Medical City, also known as Shifa district.
Reuters
