The attack came after Iraq's army on Tuesday rolled into the southeastern neighborhood of al-Salam, taking a hospital before meeting stiff resistance from the terrorists. Convoys of dozens of armored Iraqi special forces and army Humvees could be seen moving into the southeastern neighborhood Wednesday morning.
"What we see here is the enemy reacting to a new axis of advance," said coalition spokesman US Army, Col. John Dorrian, explaining that the new push putting increased pressure on Daesh, AP reported.
After the advance on Tuesday, Iraqi forces said that they pushed the front line back more than 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) and retook Mosul's al-Salam hospital, but only a few hundred meters (yards) appeared to be secured and clashes continued into the evening.
When Iraqi forces initially launched a push into eastern Mosul in early November, troops came under heavy counterattacks after advancing too far too quickly. Daesh terrorists depend on suicide car bombs and sniper fire to derail the security forces, as well as a network of underground tunnels.
Iraqi government troops and paramilitary forces launched a campaign in October to dislodge Daesh from Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city and Daesh's last major urban bastion in the country.