Iraq's military said they were about to complete the encirclement of Islamic State's stronghold in the Old City of Mosul, after taking control of a neighbouring district yesterday. Military said it had captured Bab Sinjar, north of the historic, densely-populated district where the militants launched their cross-border caliphate in 2014.<br/><br/>Government forces and their allies still have to take full control of Medical City, a complex of hospitals further north along the bank of the Tigris, to enclose the militant enclave. The offensive to retake the northern city started in October with air and ground support from a U.S.- led international coalition.<br/><br/>The forces retook eastern Mosul in January. The fall of Mosul would, in effect, mark the end of the Iraqi half of the caliphate that Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared in a speech from a historic mosque in the Old City.