Elite Iraqi forces have fully recaptured east Mosul from Daesh militants according to a statement by a top commander on Wednesday.
Staff General Talib al-Sheghati, who heads the Counter-Terrorism Service, announced "the liberation... of the left bank" at a press conference in Bartalla, a town east of Mosul.
The news comes three months after the elaborate Mosul offensive against the Daesh stronghold was launched.
Sheghati added however that work remained to be done to out the remaining extremists from their stronghold.
The "important lines and important areas are finished," he said, adding that "there is only a bit of the northern (front) remaining."
The announcement marks the end of the first phase of the Mosul offensive which was launched on October 17, 2016.
Mosul is Iraq's second city and the only remaining major Daesh stronghold in the country. The city is located around 350 kilometres to the northwest of Baghdad and had an estimated population of close to two million when Daesh overran it in early June 2014.
The United Nations reported that approximately 150,000 people are currently displaced as a result of the three-month-old offensive.
The full recapture of Mosul by Iraqi government forces would effectively rid the Daesh group's days of its territory in Iraq, dealing a critical blow to its aspirations for an Islamic state.
