Iraqi forces repel ISIS counterattack in Mosul

Iraqi forces saw off a nighttime counterattack by ISIS near Mosul's main government building hours after recapturing it, a military official said Wednesday as troops sought to push the militants further back.

The ISIS fighters used several car bombs in the assault, Maj.-Gen. Ali Kadhem al-Lami of the Federal Police's Fifth Division told a Reuters correspondent near the site.

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"Today we're clearing the area, which was liberated," he said.

Military officials had said that troops from the Rapid Response, an elite Interior Ministry division, on Tuesday recaptured the provincial government headquarters, the central bank branch and the museum where three years ago the militants filmed themselves destroying priceless statues.

The museum is completely empty of all artifacts.— Maj.-Gen. Ali Kadhem al-Lami

Associated Press reporters were granted rare access to the museum on Wednesday. They saw the jagged remains of what appeared to have been an ancient Assyrian bull statue and fragments from cuneiform tablets.

The museum once housed Mesopotamian artifacts dating back thousands of years.

"The museum is completely empty of all artifacts. They were stolen, possibly smuggled," al-Lami said.

A handful of history books remained in the main entryway of the museum beside a bag of placards from old exhibits.

They describe flint objects found in Nineveh dating back to about 4000 BC, copper oil lamps discovered in Ur dating back to 2600 BC and Sumerian statues dating back to 2050 BC.

"Mosul is the heart of Iraqi civilization," said Federal Police Maj. Muhammad al-Jabouri, a Mosul native from a nearby neighbourhood.

"When I heard how Daesh destroyed this place," he said as his eyes filled with tears, "death would have been a greater mercy for me."

Iraqi forces, backed by U.S.-led air power and military advisers, have fought since October in an intensive campaign to drive the ultra-hardline militants out of Mosul, ISIS's last major stronghold in the country.

They recaptured the eastern half of the city in January and launched assaults on the western side, across the Tigris river, on Feb. 19.

ISIS fighters are retreating further into the west of the city, military officials say, but are putting up stiff resistance, hiding among the civilian population and deploying car bombs and snipers.