Iraqi forces announce progress in Mosul offensive

Iraqi government and Kurdish forces on Tuesday announced progress in the first 24 hours of an offensive to take back Mosul, Daesh's last city stronghold in Iraq.

Iraqi forces and the Kurdish Peshmerga forces, supported by US-led airstrikes and special forces, advanced on Mosul from the east and the south on Monday in the first phase of a long-planned offensive to retake the city from Daesh.

A total of 20 villages were taken from the militants east, south and southeast of Mosul, according to statements from the army Iraqi army and the Kurdish Peshmerga forces.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced before dawn on Monday the start of the offensive on Mosul, two years after Iraq's second-largest city fell to the militants.

The fall of Mosul would effectively signal the defeat of the ultra-hardline Sunni group in Iraq. Daesh also controls parts of Syria.

According to Reuters news agency, the Iraqi army is attacking Mosul on the southern and southeastern fronts, while the Peshmerga carried out their operation on the eastern front.

The Peshmerga, who are also deployed north and northeast of the city, reportedly said they secured "a significant stretch" of the 80 km road between Erbil, their capital, and Mosul, about an hour drive to the west.

Coalition warplanes attacked 17 Daesh positions in support of the Peshmerga operation, the Kurdish statement said, adding that at least four car bombs were destroyed.

There was reportedly no indication about the number of military or civilian casualties in the Iraqi or Kurdish statements.

Mosul, with a current population of 1.5 million, is the largest city still under control of the militants. Daesh declared a "caliphate" over parts of the two countries in 2014.