IRAQI forces prepared themselves for a fresh attack against Islamic State militants in Mosul after it emerged they have reclaimed 19 neighbourhoods from the terror group.
A new wave of coalition air strikes blocked IS from launching suicide attacks across the key Iraqi city today.
The missions have been used by IS fighters trying to fend off Iraqi forces.
Strikes have disabled four of the five bridges linking east and west Mosul, and peppered roads used by IS with craters, making them impassable.
Pictures released earlier today show Iraqi forces readying themselves for war as they push to recapture the jihadists’ last major IS stronghold in Iraq.
Soldiers armed with machine guns sprayed bullets as they advanced towards the village of Tal Abtah, south of Tal Afar.
Others rode in trucks flanked with flags as they continued their battle to retake Mosul.
The battle to retake Mosul began October 17, with coalition-backed Iraqi security forces pushing toward the city.
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He said the 19 neighbourhoods reclaimed constituted less than 30 per cent of the part of the city east of the Tigris.
The government last month launched a massive campaign to retake Mosul from IS.
The offensive was launched on multiple fronts, but most of the fighting has to date been concentrated in the city’s eastern sector, with Iraq’s special forces taking the lead.
It comes as a shocking new report found nearly half of all children in Mosul lack access to clean water.
Almost 500,000 of those left amid the ruins are estimated to be children – the same population as Manchester.
And a great number of those remain without water in what the United Nations has called a “catastrophe”.
Many face the life-of-death decision of whether to drink unsafe water that can cause horrendous illnesses such as diarrhoea or cholera.
