7 treated for exposure to toxic agents near Mosul — Red Cross

Residents reported that civilians were killed in air strike on an Islamic State-run mosque on Wednesday, highlighting the perilous situation facing hundreds of thousands of Mosul residents as the allied forces step up their campaign.

Drones belonging to the Iraqi police and US-led coalition bombers were flying overhead at the time, they said.

“We had virtually no food and Daesh fighters came into our house and took what we had left”, said Khaled Mohamed, 24, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

Brig Gen Haider Al Obeidi said clearing operations were continuing in the area and his forces were close to linking up with the militarised federal police forces who were pushing up along the western bank of the Tigris river.

The district is partially controlled by Iraq’s special forces.

A team of United States soldiers has been working with the 9th Division for almost two months, including during their push through the desert to the Mosul-Tal Afar road. Mosul is Iraq’s second largest city and contains the last significant urban area held by ISIS in the country.

The fighting in Mosul’s west bank has raised concerns about the fate of the estimated 750,000 or more people trapped there with dwindling food supplies and little or no access to health services.

“In total 7,000 people fled through this area last night”, he said.

The U.N. says in a statement that 28,400 people have been forced from their homes since the operation began more than a week ago. They fled with very little luggage and in most cases with a bare minimum of clothes.

The agency, known as OCHA, said it is expanding displacement camps to cope with the increasing numbers of those fleeing Mosul. The International Organization for Migration cited Iraqi government figures.

That number may still rise sharply.

Baghdadi proclaimed the caliphate from Mosul’s grand Nuri mosque, in the old city center, which is still under his followers’ control.

But the brunt of the fighting has fallen to the CTS and the interior ministry’s elite Rapid Response Division.

Their progress was met with heavy sniper and mortar fire, a Reuters photographer reported from Mosul.

“In general, all the troops are moving forward as planned and doing so rapidly”, Staff Lieutenant General Abdelamir Yarallah told AFP from Talul al-Atshana, the highest point in Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital.

Inside the city, civilians are under fire from both ISIS and and Iraqi forces and their partners.

Intra-Kurdish fighting erupted on the sidelines of the battle, highlighting the risk of conflict and turf war between the multiple forces arrayed against Islamic State, many of which lean on regional patrons for political support and arms. A large portion of the besieged city has already been captured by USA -backed Iraqi forces and a group of allied militia.

IS militants are resisting the onslaught with suicide auto bombs, sniper and mortar fire, and reportedly launched a counter-attack during an overnight storm. Government forces already have the eastern half of the embattled city under their control. “We are deeply alarmed by what our colleagues have seen, and we strongly condemn any use of chemical weapons, by any party, anywhere”, Mardini said.

The International Red Cross (ICRC) says five Iraqi children and two women are suffering symptoms consistent with exposure to chemical weapons. The analytics organization IHS Markit published a study in November 2016 documenting 52 uses of chemical weapons by the jihadi organization in Iraq and Syria between 2014 and 2016. They keep some local Mosul residents – referred to as “sources” – to help them identify militants from among the civilians.