The imperative town of Bartella has been captured by Iraqi forces. The town lays 21km to the east of Mosul and is on the Mosul highway. The town had a pre-ISIS invasion population of around 30,000 in which was traditional an Assyrian majority settlement before mass migration by Shabaks and Kurds made them the minority in 2003. In the operation to liberate Bartella, four senior ISIS figures and a further 18 killed following heavy artillery fire.