Terrifying ISIS tank bomb stopped in its tracks when elite Iraqi forces kill the driver in battle to retake Mosul

A TERRIFYING tank bomb used by ISIS was stopped in tracks when elite Iraqi forces killed the driver in the battle to retake Mosul.

The homemade device did not reach its intended target as troops managed to stop its murderous spree.

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Images show the burnt out tank was fitted with metal cages over the windows with a sign on its side reading: “Islamic State, Nineveh Province, Abi Laith Ansari Battalion.”

Iraq's Golden Division took out the improvised weapon during a battle in the east of Mosul, killing the driver and setting fire to the would be killing machine, the reports.

The images come on the day Iraq's prime minister declared eastern Mosul "fully liberated" from Islamic State group militants.

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It is more than three months after a massive U.S.-backed operation to retake the city began.

Iraqi forces drove Islamic State militants from one of their last bastions in the eastern half of the city, while aid groups expressed concern for the estimated 750,000 people still in the militant-held west.

Haider al-Abadi hailed the "unmatched heroism of all security forces factions" and public support for the operation.

Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city and the IS's last urban stronghold in the country, fell into the hands of the extremists in the summer of 2014, when the group captured large swaths of northern and western Iraq.

Asked how long it will take to liberate the western side of the city, al-Abadi said: "I can't tell now, but we are capable of doing so and we will do so."

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Hundreds of civilians fled from the northeastern Rashidiya neighborhood on foot as Iraqi helicopters circled overhead and fired on militants. At least two wounded Iraqi soldiers were brought back from the front lines after a suicide bombing.

A mortar attack in another neighborhood in eastern Mosul killed an Iraqi army colonel on Sunday, according to Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool, a military spokesman.

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The U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, Lise Grande, expressed concern for civilians in the western half of the city in a statement signed by 20 international and local aid groups.

She said the cost of food and basic goods is soaring, water and electricity are intermittent and that some residents are forced to burn furniture to keep warm.

Mosul is the IS group's last major urban bastion in Iraq. The extremists still control large areas in neighboring Syria.

A U.S.-led coalition and Iraq's own air force have been carrying out airstrikes in support of the Mosul operation.

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