An Iraqi member of the Rapid Response Division stands in a street in Mosul’s Yarimjah neighbourhood on January 12, 2017.

Iraqi forces fighting ISIS in Mosul reached the Nineveh province governance building and raised the Iraqi flag there on Friday, a senior US defense official said.

Elissa Slotkin, the acting assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, also told a Pentagon briefing on the fight against ISIS that a US liaison team is in talks with Turkey about helping its forces near al-Bab in Syria and has provided air support and surveillance in the past.

“We are engaged on an hourly basis with the Turks on counter-ISIS campaign in Syria,” Slotkin said. “We have a liaison team that’s resident in Ankara. They are engaging every single day on the full spectrum of coalition support to the campaign.”

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