Islamic State fighters holding out in Mosul on a strip of land along the Tigris River are increasingly using suicide bombers in a desperate attempt to slow the steady advance of Iraqi forces, military commanders said on Thursday.
Iraqi forces pushing towards the al-Maydan and al-Shareen districts in the northern Iraqi city broke the militants' defenses and have reached within 200 meters (yards) of the riverbank.
But they encountered stiff resistance from an estimated few hundred militants lodged among thousands of civilians in the Old City's maze of alleyways, particularly from foreign suicide bombers, Iraqi commanders said.
The military has predicted final victory this week after a grinding eight-month assault to oust Islamic State from the once two-million-strong city.
Mosul is by far the largest city ruled by Islamic State. It was here, three years ago, that the group declared the founding of its "caliphate" over parts of Iraq and neighboring Syria.
Lieutenant General Sami Aridhi of the elite counter-terrorism service said Islamic State fighters were increasingly detonating explosives among civilians fleeing towards security forces and had even resorted to using women suicide bombers.
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