A32NEWS - Iraqi forces, who launched an assault on the city of Mosul from the east, had killed nearly 1,000 militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
A commander of the fighters in Iraq expresses it, on Monday (28/11/2016), as reported by Reuters.
Nevertheless, the Iraqi forces are now experiencing difficulties faced ISIS hiding in the houses of civilians around the city of Mosul.
Iraqi elite troops "Gold Division" is the only brigade that entered Mosul from the east.
While Iraqi soldiers, police, militia Syia and Peshmerga units surrounded the city from the west, north and south.
Fighting in the city slowed down because the government could no longer use tanks and heavy equipment to avoid civilian casualties as a shield militants ISIS.
One special forces commander, Major-General Abdul Ghani al-Asadi, said that the soldiers had to adapt to the tactics of ISIS by surrounding districts one by one to cut the enemy's supply logistics.
"Initially running battle quickly because we opened up the area without any civilians," said Asadi.
"We were to the residential area. We have to protect them by surrounding districts one by one," he said.
Asadi added that about 990 militants have been killed in the fighting ISIS from the east. He did not reveal the number of casualties from the government side.
"We changed the plan because of changes in the strategy of the enemy. ISIS has moved from one place to another, did not settle in one location," he said.
"Tank can not be used, while the cannons are also ineffective. While planes of the coalition also limited their movements to avoid civilian casualties," said Asadi.
The Iraqi government itself asked the people of Mosul to seek refuge in the house in the middle of a battle for humanitarian organizations can no longer accommodate the hundreds of thousands of people who fled from the city.
More than one million people are thought to still survive in the largest city of the northern regions of Iraq.
Efforts to defeat ISIS in Mosul, the largest region last held by the group in Iraq, is an important step for the destruction of the Caliphate of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Some commanders estimate the fighting in Mosul will occur over several months.
Dozens of districts in the eastern region must be mastered first before government troops advanced to the Tigris River that divides Mosul into two parts, east and west.
According to Major General Najm al-Jubbouri, the western city of Mosul could be more dangerous.
Iraq's military initially estimated there were 5,000 to 6,000 militants ISIS in Mosul, while government troops numbered 100,000 people.
