Mosul advance 'quicker' than expected, Iraqi PM says
The battle to oust Islamic State extremists from Mosul is going "more quickly than we thought", the Iraqi PM has said.
The comment by Haider al Abadi came as Iraqi special forces joined the campaign to retake Iraq's second-largest city and IS stronghold.
"Our forces have started to move forward to free this city which was taken by IS over two years ago," he said.
"The fighting forces are currently pushing forward toward the town more quickly than we thought, and more quickly certainly than we established in our plan of campaign."
The Iraqi army elite unit and Kurdish fighters have started trying to take back villages north and east of Mosul.
The elite force, Golden Division, said they entered the town of Bartella from the east after a heavy gun battle that saw IS militants unleash a number of suicide truck bombs.
