Iraqi forces assume full control of eastern Mosul outskirts

Iraqi special forces continued their push into Mosul on Tuesday morning, provoking clashes, heavy shelling, and suicide car bomb attacks from ISIS militants, who have held the city since 2014. The Iraqi troops have fully taken over the eastern Mosul industrial region of Gogjali, and are attempting to crush the ISIS fighters by moving in from different directions.

"God willing, we will chop off the snake's head," Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said. "They have no escape, they either die or surrender."

Iraq also announced it would be joining forces in the offensive with the Kurdish Peshmerga, "an extraordinary union of ethnic and religious groups that have long stood on opposing sides in Iraq's history," CNN writes.

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Mosul is the last major holdout of ISIS in the Iraqi half of their caliphate. Military experts expect the radicals to force "street to street" or "house to house" fighting as they struggle to hold the city. ISIS has also taken to lighting oil trenches on fire in order to create a smoke screen, obscuring targets from enemy planes. Humanitarian groups have warned that ISIS is using thousands of civilians as "human shields."

Approximately 1.5 million people still live in Mosul.