He said five of the 10 killed in the ambush were border guards.
Police chief Shaker Jawdat said 11-year-old Farah Dakhil was released from the militants' grip in al-Tenek district in western Mosul, where the forces have been engaged in fierce encounters with IS. "The toys are back, life is back, we are free".
A U.S. official said on Wednesday that Iraqi forces working alongside USA and Australian military advisers had been targeted in a Daesh attack that used a low-level chemical agent in west Mosul. The military now controls the eastern districts and are making advances in the west. Photo Credit: Reuters Troops, backed by helicopters, were moving towards the al-Nuri mosque where, almost three years ago, Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi announced his self-declared caliphate spanning parts of Iraq and Syria. Heavy smoke could be seen in that area after an air strike, witnesses said.
The US-trained Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS), which has suffered horrendous casualties of thousands of men, has retaken the nearby Al-Thawra and Al-Saha districts, statements said. Police gave chase but the assailants managed to escape, he said.
"We are completing the encirclement of the terrorists in the Old City", he told Reuters.
Saudi oil minister says production cuts may need to continue
Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak says the oil market is improving with production cuts by OPEC and non-OPEC members. US oil prices plunged the most in six weeks on Wednesday after USA government data showed supplies remain plentiful.
However, the western part of Mosul, with its narrow streets and heavily populated neighborhoods, appears to be a bigger challenge to the Iraqi forces.
The officer went on to accuse Iraqi forces "of paying less attention to the safety of civilians" during the anti-Daesh fight.
As of 20 April, over half a million people have been displaced from Mosul, while 91,000 have returned, a spokeswoman for the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said, citing government figures.
The Kurdish-speaking community came to the spotlight when Islamic State militants, taking over large parts of Iraq, victimized its members, committing massacres and subjecting them to forced conversions, sexual slavery and other reported atrocities.
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