(VOVworld) – Iraqi security forces launched Saturday’s operation against the Islamic State (IS) and retook control of four villages in south of the major IS stronghold in Mosul, the capital of Iraq’s northern province of Nineveh.

An Iraqi soldier helps a wounded soldier from clashes in south of Mosul, August 12, 2016. (Photo: Reuters)

Major General Najim al-Jubouri, chief of Free Nineveh Operations Command, said the security forces, backed by the US-led coalition aircraft, started their advance against the IS positions in villages scattered at the western bank of Tigris River near the militant-seized town of Qayyara. Jubouri said after hours of heavy clashes, the troops managed to recapture the villages of Imam Gharbi, al-Mreir, al-Tal’ah, and al-Bazajlah, killing 57 IS militants, including seven suicide bombers.

The recapture of the villages came as the security forces were preparing to drive out the IS militants from the town of Qayyara as part of a major offensive aimed at liberating the last major IS stronghold in Mosul, some 400 km north of Baghdad. Mosul is the Iraq’s last city which has been seized by the IS since June 2014.