Iraqi forces gain control of Fallujah hospital from IS

Iraqi forces gained control of the main hospital in Fallujah on Saturday and were clearing mines after driving the so-called Islamic State from most of the city, a military official has said.

Fighting was still ongoing in parts of the city, however, where US and Iraqi warplanes targeted snipers and other IS positions, according to Brigadier General Haider al-Obeidi.

Troops feared that militants would use patients as human shields as they advanced towards the hospital, but found no patients inside when they stormed the building.

The Dubbat neighbourhood was later captured, and Iraqi forces are now pushing into the northern neighbourhood of Golan and several small areas, the official added.

On Friday the country's prime minister said government forces had gained control of most of Fallujah, after weeks of fighting on its outskirts.

Fallujah was the first Iraqi city to fall to the extremist group, in January 2014, and was the last major IS foothold in the sprawling Anbar province, the heartland of the country's Sunni minority.

The group still controls Iraq's second largest city, Mosul, in the north.