Federal police and an elite interior ministry unit known as Rapid Response stormed the airport and engaged in gun battles with Islamic State fighters who used suicide car bombs to try to stem the advance, according to a Reuters correspondent south of Mosul airport.
Police officers told Reuters that the police and Rapid Response forces had taken control of large parts of the airport.
Other officers said the militants deployed bomb-carrying drones to attack the Iraqi Counter Terrorism Forces advancing from the southwestern side of the city.
"We are attacking Daesh (Islamic State) from multiple fronts to distract them and prevent them from regrouping. It’s the best way to knock them down quickly," said federal police captain Amir Abdul Kareem, whose units are fighting near Ghozlani military base.
After ousting the militant group from eastern Mosul last month, Iraqi forces have sought to capture the airport to use it as a launch pad for an onslaught into the west of the city.
The campaign involves a 100,000-strong force of Iraqi troops, Kurdish fighters and Shi'ite militias and has made rapid advances since the start of the year, aided by new tactics and improved coordination.
Losing Mosul could spell the end of the Iraqi side of militants' self-styled caliphate in Iraq and Syria, which Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared from the city after sweeping through vast areas of Iraq in 2014.
