Islamic State militants captured an Iraqi police colonel and eight other officers on Monday after they ran out of ammunition during a skirmish in the battle for western Mosul, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said.
The official, who declined to be identified, said the incident took place as government forces closed in on Islamic State fighters in the Old City and other districts, in an offensive intended to crush the hard-line group in what was once the de facto capital of their self-proclaimed Islamic caliphate.
A media officer for the Interior Ministry's Rapid Response units, Lt. Col. Abdel Amir al-Mohammedawi, denied that any police officers had been captured when asked for comment.