Iraqi forces push into IS-held neighborhoods

MOSUL, Iraq - Iraqi forces battling Islamic State pushed into four neighborhoods on Sunday amid heavy clashes in Mosul, the Iraqi military said.

Special forces from the Counter-Terrorism Service carried out a dawn attack in al-Uraybi and Rifai and broke the militants' defensive lines, the Joint Operations Command said in a statement.

At the same time, the army's 9th Armored Division and the elite forces of the federal police, known as Rapid Response, pushed deeper into the battleground neighborhood of al-Iqtisadiyn as well as the southern part of the adjacent 17th July neighborhood, which is one of the main IS strongholds in Mosul, the statement said.