DUSHANBE, 04.07.2017. /NIAT “Khovar”/. Iraqi forces on Monday recaptured new areas in the remaining redoubt of Islamic State (IS, banned in Tajikistan) militants in Mosul’s old city amid fierce clashes that left dozens of IS militants killed, Xinhua reports citing the Iraqi military.

The army’s 16th Infantry Division freed the areas of Khatoniyah, Tuwalib and Ra’s al-Kour after defeating the IS defensive lines, leaving 67 IS militants killed, the Iraqi Joint Operations Command said in a statement.

The army’s explosive experts dismantled 72 roadside bombs planted in the battlefields to hamper the progress the Iraqi soldiers, the statement said.

The troops also opened several safe corridors in the densely-populated neighborhoods of the old city, and evacuated at least 961 civilians, the statement added.

The battles also continued in the remaining part of al-Shifaa neighborhood, the last neighborhood still seized by IS militants outside the major IS redoubt of the old city center.

Mosul, 400 km north of Iraq’s capital Baghdad, has been under IS control since June 2014.