DAMASCUS, SYRIA (4:30 P.M.) – Overnight on Wednesday, ISIS militants began a desperate counter-attack in Mosul city after isolated jihadist forces had been driven into their last two neighborhoods.

Striking south of the Old City, a platoon of Islamic State insurgents somehow managed to bypass Iraqi strongpoints, likely through undiscovered tunnels, and infiltrated a small section of the Al-Dawasa district.

Meanwhile, ISIS commanders amassed a couple hundred fighters for a general offensive in the southern sector of the Old City, targeting positions held by the Iraqi Federal Police with nine car bombs during dusk hours.

Although clashes are ongoing in both neighborhoods, an Iraqi military source told Al-Masdar News that the Islamic State counter-attack had been foiled in large. He added that the jihadist attack was welcomed as it served to thin out ISIS numbers and weaken its defenses around the historic Al-Nouri mosque.

ISIS has set fire to several buildings and dozens of tires in the Old City, thus creating a thick cloud of black smoke covering most of western Mosul. In turn, this prevents Iraqi choppers and coalition warplanes from conducting pinpoint airstrikes due to poor visibility.

In the nearby Al-Shafaa neighborhood anchored along the Tigris River, the Rapid Response Division, Counter Terrorism Units and 9th Division continued their mopping-up operations with the district expected to fall into Iraqi hands before the end of the week.

Amaq Agency confirmed the aforementioned ISIS counter-attack. A lengthy propaganda video was recently released, depicting the battle for Mosul from ISIS’ perspective.