Iraqi joint forces prepare for storming Nouri Mosque in Mosul

ISIS organization has taken control of parts of a liberated district in the right side of Mosul, in a rare advance since the start of the military campaign on February 19. Meanwhile, Iraq Security forces announced on Saturday that ISIS second-in-command leader Ayad Hamed Al Jumail was killed in air strike in western al-Qa'im district of Iraq.

"The security forces will carry out new tactics during their future operations in the axis south-west of Mosul to break into the Nouri Mosque," Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) said in a statement.

"The forces are still continuing to move towards the Old City after the liberation of some areas in the city," said the leader in Rapid Response Forces (RRF), Abdul Amir Mohammedawi.
 
He pointed out that the obstacles facing the forces in progress is the presence of civilians and the narrow alleys of the old city and the difficulty of moving in, stressing that the city's streets are booby-trapped. He added that the entry of the old city of several axes, but the main objective to ensure the exit of families safely. 

Al-Mahmoudawi pointed out that the forces managed to dismantle several houses and car bombs and parked by ISIS's militants on the side of the road, and managed to save 8 families located in one house on the edge of Mosul, adding that daeth toll of ISIS today reached to 18 dead.

In a statement Saturday, intelligence sources said that Iraqi air force carried out a precision strike that targeted ISIS military leaders' headquarters based on tip-offs that led to their gathering in al-Qa'im district (nearly 400 km northwest of Baghdad).
 
ISIS military leader in al-Qa'im district Turki Jamal al-Dulaimi and the group's administrative leader Salem Muzaffar al-Ajmi were also killed in the shelling, sources added.

On the other hand, the Iraqi parliament approved a decision on Saturday to ban the Kurdistan flag in Kirkuk, stating that only the Iraqi flag should be raised over the government institutions across the city.

The Kurdish MP, Jamal Cougar, said the five Kurdish blocs within the House of Representatives came out of a unified session today, and announced boycotting the session, in protest against the drop of the flag of the regional government institutions in the province of Kirkuk. He added that the Kurdish blocs will meet with their leaders in order to take a final position of boycotting the parliament's sessions.

The Iraqi MP, Mohamed Tamim said that the House of Representatives and during its session today voted to raise the Iraqi flag only in the province of Kirkuk, a reference to the illegality of lifting the flag of Kurdistan over the government buildings in this province.
 He said that the parliment decision was fair to the rights of the rest of the components of this province, because they wanted to be just an Iraqi province representing all the components.