PHOTO: People watch an oil well set alight by the Islamic State in Qayyarah, about 31 miles (50 km) south of Mosul AP
Islamic State fighters are maintaining resistance against Iraqi forces south of Iraq’s second city Mosul.
On Wednesday, the 10th day of the Iraqi-Kurdish offensive, ISIS continued to hold a line in the region of Shora, 30 km (20 miles) from Mosul.
An advance group of Iraqi special forces have closed within 3-4 km (2-2.5 miles) of Mosul to the east, but have stopped for other forces to join them and to make ground on other fronts.
To the north, Kurdish peshmerga continue to surround Islamic State fighters in Bashiqa, a key town for supply lines about 20 km (12.5 miles) from the center of Mosul.
The Islamic State has been trying to check the advances with suicide bombers and burning of oilfields, throwing up dense clouds of smoke to hinder US-led airstrikes.
Concern continues over the up to 1.5 million civilians in and near Mosul. UN aid agencies said on Thursday that about 10,000 people have fled the fighting has so far forced about 10,600 people to flee.
“Assessments have recorded a significant number of female-headed households, raising concerns around the detention or capture of men and boys,” said the office of the UN humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, Lise Grande.
Grande told Reuters on Tuesday that a mass exodus could happen within the next few days. She said that, in the worst-case scenario, ISIS fighters might use “rudimentary chemical weapons”.
