By Ahmed Kasim, Farhat Shakir and Ali Jawad

NINEVEH, (AA): Iraqi counter-terrorism forces have seized three more villages from the Daesh terrorist group in areas north and southwest of the city of Mosul, military sources said Thursday.

“Iraq’s anti-terrorism agency has managed to capture the villages of Al-Abbas and Al-Najafiya,” Ahmad al-Dihan, a brigadier general in the Iraqi army’s Nineveh Operations Command, told Anadolu Agency.

According to Dihan, the two villages were taken following almost three hours of clashes with Daesh militants holed up in local homes.

A third village in the area, Tilyara, was captured shortly afterward, the officer said.

Meanwhile, U.S.-led coalition warplanes struck two Daesh vehicles east of Mosul, killing seven militants, according to another security source.

Khalid al-Metyuri, a Daesh commander, was among those killed, the same source said, speaking anonymously due to security concerns.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi Defense Ministry-affiliated anti-terrorism forces have stormed Friday, Al-Qadisiyah neighborhood northeast of Iraq’s city of Mosul, amid continuous clashes until noon. They recaptured parts of the neighborhood, official Iraqi television said.

Iraqi anti-terrorism forces, along with Iraqi army forces, have intensified their presence in the last hours in Al-Zahraa neighborhood east of Mosul, in preparation for expected progress towards the Al-Tahrir neighborhood overlooking strategic Tigris river bridges, Jabbar Hassan, an Iraqi officer, told Anadolu Agency.

Hassan added the bridges were a strategic target for Iraqi forces because it “will open a new axis to progress towards the neighborhood located on the right side” of the Tigris river.

On Oct. 18, the Iraqi army — backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes and local allies on the ground — launched a wide-ranging operation aimed at retaking Mosul.

Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul was overrun by Daesh in mid-2014, along with vast swathes of territory in northern and western Iraq.

Recent months have seen the Iraqi army and its allies retake much territory from the terrorist group, especially on Mosul’s outskirts and in Iraq’s western Anbar province.

[Photo: An Iraqi girl named Melek poses with her cat “Fresh” as she flees her home to go to safe zones during the clashes between Iraqi army forces and Daesh terrorists in Mosul, Iraq on November 8, 2016. Photographer: Muhabiri Ahmet İzgi/AA]