Near Mosul, Iraq (CNN)Iraqi-led forces have surrounded a Christian town in an attempt to liberate it from ISIS control, but they are facing fierce resistance, exchanging heavy gunfire with the militants, a paramilitary general told CNN.
The operation in the town of Qaraqosh by Iraqi forces, Peshmerga fighters and a Christian paramilitary group is the latest in an aggressive push toward the city of Mosul by a coalition of around 94,000 people, aimed at unshackling the strategic city from more than two years of brutal ISIS control.
Part of Qaraqosh has already been liberated, according to General Amr Shamoun, who belongs to the Christina militia involved in the attack.
Shamoun said that ISIS appeared to have brought civilians into the town, which was abandoned after ISIS took control of it in 2014, complicating the operation there.
Qaraqosh is just one town coalition forces are trying to liberate. The Iraqi army's armored division is closing in on Mosul's fringes after sweeping through enemy-controled land in the past two days, freeing communities village by village, the division's commander told CNN Wednesday.








