MOSUL: Iraqi forces said Sunday they had recaptured the Nimrud area, the site of an ancient Assyrian city blown up by the Islamic State group, as they battled the jihadists south of Mosul.
The troops pushed towards Nimrud last week as they pressed an offensive launched on October 17 to recapture Iraq's second city, which the jihadists seized along with swathes of Iraq and Syria in mid-2014.
A Kurdish-Arab alliance is pursuing a twin offensive against the other major city still under IS control, Raqa in Syria, and a US-led coalition is backing both assaults with air strikes.
On Sunday Iraq's Joint Operations Command (JOC) said troops had retaken the Nimrud area and another village southeast of the famed archeological site.
"Units of the 9th Armoured Division completely liberate the Nimrud (area) and raise the Iraqi flag over the buildings," the JOC said in a statement.
It did not specifically mention the Nimrud archaeological site, located a little more than a kilometre (less than a mile) west of the village that bears its name.
Nimrud was the one of the great centres of the ancient Middle East. Founded in the 13th century BC, it became the capital of the Assyrian empire, whose rulers built vast palaces and monuments that have drawn archaeologists for more than 150 years.
In April last year, IS posted a video on the Internet of its fighters smashing monuments before planting explosives around the site and blowing it up.
It was part of a campaign of destruction against heritage sites under jihadist control that also took in ancient Nineveh on the outskirts of Mosul, Hatra in the desert to the south and Palmyra in neighbouring Syria.
IS says the ancient monuments are idols that violate the teachings of its extreme form of Sunni Islam, but it has still sold artefacts to fund its operations.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation welcomed the news of Nimrud's recapture.
"We welcome the news that Nimrod, a UNESCO world heritage site, is back under the control of the Iraqi government," said spokesman George Papagiannis.
"We look forward to coordinating with the relevant authorities in Baghdad on providing support for any assessments that need to be done of the site, once the area has been stabilised."
The Iraqi offensive has seen federal forces and Kurdish peshmerga fighters advance on Mosul from the east, south and north.
The elite Counter-Terrorism Services (CTS) have pushed into the eastern outskirts of Mosul, with heavy fighting in recent days.
Staff Lieutenant Colonel Muntadhar Salem of the CTS told AFP on Sunday that its forces were looking to move into a new eastern neighbourhood.
"Our goal today is to clear out IS from the western part of Karkukli," he said.
North of Karkukli in the neighbourhood of Arbajiyah, CTS forces were facing sniper fire as they moved street-to-street clearing houses.
On the edge of Mosul, dozens of civilians could be seen walking towards a gathering point from where they would be taken to a camp for the displaced. A dozen men swarmed around a barber shop for a shave.
In neighbouring Syria, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militia alliance has moved to about 30 kilometres (20 miles) from Raqa since launching its offensive a week ago.
Commanders have said the SDF is close to completing a first phase of the operation to surround and isolate Raqa before launching an assault on the city itself.
The jihadists are putting up fierce resistance in both Mosul and Raqa, and military commanders have warned of long and difficult battles ahead.
Turkey has launched its own operation against IS just south of its border in Syria and a monitor said Sunday that Ankara-backed rebels had neared the IS stronghold of Al-Bab.