Iraqi forces make first push into Mosul

Advancing Iraqi troops broke through Daesh defences in an eastern suburb of Mosul on Monday, taking the battle for the insurgents' stronghold into the city limits for the first time, a force commander said.

Troops of the Iraqi army's Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) moved forward on Gogjali, an industrial zone on the eastern outskirts.

Lieutenant-General Abdul Ghani al-Assadi, the commander of CTS forces east of the city, told state television his forces had reached the edge of the Karama district inside the city.

The fighting came after two weeks of advances by US-backed Iraqi forces who cleared surrounding areas of insurgents, in the early stages of the largest military operation in Iraq since the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Commanders have said the battle for the militants' last big stronghold in Iraq, could take months.

Reuters news agency cited a Kurdish peshmerga intelligence source who reportedly said seven Daesh militants were killed in the Aden district, adjacent to Karama, and two of their vehicles destroyed.