Islamic State attacks Iraqi soldiers in Mosul

By Ahmed Rasheed BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Islamic State militants attacked Iraqi soldiers near a hospital in southeast Mosul on Wednesday, an army officer and the jihadist group's new agency said, trying to repel the army's deepest advances of the seven-week Mosul campaign. The fighting came a day after the army's operations commander for Mosul said soldiers surged into the city and took over the Salam hospital, less than a mile (1.5 km) from the Tigris river which divides eastern and western Mosul. It said a suicide bomber blew himself up near the hospital, killing 20 soldiers.