Three ISIS underground tunnels discovered northwest of Mosul

Iraqi army forces on Monday discovered three underground tunnels dug by ISIS militants in northwest Mosul as troops continue to comb areas recaptured from the militant group.

A military source said that Iraqi army forces, acting upon information obtained from local residents, found three underground tunnels belonging to ISIL in Qairawan, a region which pro-government paramilitary forces recaptured in June, BasNews reported.

Lit. Col. Sallam al-Khaffaf told the website that the tunnels contained communication kits, a huge amount of cell phones militants had confiscated from civilians and lists with names of civilians executed by the group.

ISIL had relied on tunnels both to escape from, and attack, Iraqi security forces during more than eight months of operations to retake areas held by the militants in Nineveh province which began in October 2016.

Since the Iraqi government declared early July the recapture of Mosul, ISIL’s former capital in Iraq, police forces have been combing the Wstern side of the city for sleeper militant cells and munition hiding places. The militants have also launched a few sporadic attacks against troops and civilians since the declaration.

The Iraqi government intends to aim at other ISIL havens in Anbar, Kirkuk and Salahuddin once it is done with retaking Tal Afar, the ISIL’s last stronghold in Nineveh which the Defense Ministry had completed preparations for invading. The Defense Ministry said recently it was waiting for orders to launch operations for the enclave. So far, operations by pro-government militias, the Popular Mobilization, have isolated the town from Mosul and from the Syrian borders, and retook several surrounding villages.

Source: Farsnews