Iraqi forces have dislodged Islamic State from one third of the eastern side of Mosul four weeks into the US-backed campaign to take back the city, an interior ministry spokesman says.
The Tigris river divides Mosul into eastern and western sides. The built-up area in the eastern side is slightly bigger than the western side where the old city is located.
"More than a third of this (eastern) side has been liberated," the spokesman, Brigadier-General Saad Maan, told a news conference at the Qayyara military base, the main hub for the forces trying to end Islamic State's two-year rule of Mosul.
So far, 955 insurgents have been killed and 108 captured on the southern frontlines of the city alone, Maan said. He did not give a toll for the campaign overall.
With air and ground support from a U.-led coalition, Iraqi government forces are trying to consolidate gains made in the east of the city, which they entered at the end of October.
They are yet to enter the northern or southern neighbourhoods of Mosul, where more than 1 million people are thought to be living.
