Iraqi government forces have managed to liberate more areas around the northern city of Mosul as part of a massive offensive aimed at retaking the entire city from Takfiri Daesh terrorists.

Iraq’s Joint Operations Command (JOC) announced that security forces had liberated Qala region and taken control of Janin military base east of Mosul, located some 400 kilometers north of the capital Baghdad.

Commander of the Mosul Operations, Major General Najm al Jabouri, also said his forces established control over the villages of Saf al-Tuth and Nana on Wednesday, following a fierce exchange of gunfire with Daesh snipers.

Additionally, Iraqi armed forces welcomed more than 1,000 Iraqi refugees from the recently-liberated village of Shoura, located 40 kilometers south of Mosul.

The government forces are going to transport the internally-displaced people to a processing center and refugee camps within the next few days.

The prime minister of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region said Peshmerga forces will not enter Mosul in order to avoid the danger of a “potential ethnic conflict.”

Nechirvan Barzani, however, issued a veiled warning to the Iraqi central government, suggesting that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) wanted to take over the administration of Mosul after it was liberated.  

Mosul is of paramount significance to the KRG, he said, warning that the city would become the birthplace of another terrorist group if it is not administered well after liberation from the grip of Daesh extremists.