Attacks targets neighbourhood west of Old City, ISIL’s last stronghold in city where 150,000 civilians remain trapped.
ISIL is estimated to only control about seven percent of Iraq.
Iraq’s armed forces have blocked a major wave of attacks by suicide bombers from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) outside the Old City of Mosul, according to the Iraqi military.
Sunday’s attacks targeted Hay al-Tanak, a poor neighbourhood west of the Old City, the last stronghold of the fighters in Mosul.
It is the first wave of attacks reported outside the Old City since the battle to capture the historic district from ISIL started a week ago.
It came just days after a suicide bomber killed at least three people while attacking a shopping district in east Mosul that was retaken from the ISIL group a few months ago, according to Iraqi medical and security officials.
The attack struck the area’s Muthanna neighbourhood late on Friday as residents shopped in advance of the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
A second bomber managed to enter a shopping arcade and blew himself up among civilians, killing at least two and wounding nine, according to the same officer and a medic at Al-Khansaa hospital. A third suicide bomber was killed by police before he could detonate his vest, the sources said.
It was among the bloodiest attacks since Iraqi forces retook the eastern side of Mosul in January as part of a massive offensive to wrest back the country’s second city from ISIL.
There had been growing calls in east Mosul before Friday night’s attack for the families of ISIL members to be, among other measures, banished for 10 years.
On Thursday, Iraq’s prime minister said the “liberation” of the city of Mosul from ISIL would be announced in a few days.
“It’s a matter of a few days and we will announce the total liberation of Mosul,” Haider al-Abadi was quoted by Baghdad-based Sumaria TV as saying.
The announcement came as Iraqi forces were continuing the battle against ISIL fighters in their last stronghold in western Mosul, the city’s old town – a densely populated quarter with narrow, winding alleys.
Up to 150,000 civilians are believed to be trapped in there, where conditions have been described by the UN as desperate.
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