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MOSUL, Iraq, July 7-- Iraqi security forces on Friday pushed the remaining Islamic State (IS) militants into a small pocket in the Old City at the bank of Tigris River in the western side of Mosul, the Iraqi military said. The federal police freed the commercial area of Souq al-Saghir and seized the adjacent al-Najafi thoroughfare after heavy clashes with the extremist militants, a security source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity. The commandos of the Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) forces and the army's 9th Armored Division squeezed the remaining IS militants into old houses and narrow alleys of the Old City stretching on the bank of the Tigris River, after they seized part of the neighborhoods of Shahwan and Ras al-Kour, the source said. Meanwhile, the soldiers of the 9th Division killed Abu Zaid, an IS local leader, and seven of his aides near a mosque in the Old City, the Joint Operations Command (JOC) said in a brief statement. The fighting in the Old City is becoming heavier as Iraqi forces push the extremist IS militants into the strip of land along the bank of the Tigris River. The desperate militants have been increasingly resorting to suicide attacks and showing stiff resistance that slowed the troops progress in the recent days. And there were a large number of roadside bombs and booby-trapped buildings, in addition to IS snipers taking positions in the buildings and narrow alleys of heavily-populated neighborhoods, where thousands of civilians still live under IS rule. | 
