Battle for Mosul intensifies

Elite Iraqi forces were engaged in "intense" fighting with jihadists in eastern Mosul yesterday, an officer said, as civilians gathered on the city's outskirts to flee.

Iraqi forces launched a massive operation to retake the country's second city from the Islamic State group on October 17, and the Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) special forces have pushed the jihadists back from some Mosul neighbourhoods.

But there are still weeks if not months of fighting ahead in the battle to recapture the last IS-held Iraqi city, and aid workers have warned that displacement may spike as Iraqi troops push deeper into Mosul.

"The fighting is intense this morning. We're trying to fortify our positions in Arbajiyah before continuing our attack into Al-Bakr," said Staff Lieutenant Colonel Muntadhar Salem of CTS, referring to two Mosul areas.

As fighting raged deeper in the city, civilians, some of them carrying white flags, walked toward its outskirts, gathering near an Iraqi military truck that would take them out of the city to safety.

Syrian pro-government forces walk around in the village of Minyan, west of Aleppo, yesterday, after they retook the area from rebel fighters. Photo: AFP

More than 49,000 people have been displaced since the Mosul operation began, the International Organisation for Migration said yesterday.

Aid workers have said that a million or more people could be displaced by the battle for Mosul, meaning that the worst may still be ahead.

In Syria, government forces have recaptured all of the areas taken by rebel fighters in a recent assault intended to break the regime siege on eastern Aleppo, a monitor said yesterday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the army had recaptured key areas including the western district of Dahiyet al-Assad and the village of Minyan outside the city.

The monitor said over 450 fighters and civilians had been killed since the rebels began their latest bid to break the siege on October 28. More than 300,000 people have been killed in Syria's five-year war.

Meanwhile, Russia yesterday said a flotilla of warships is now in the eastern Mediterranean off the Syrian coast after being sent to reinforce Russia's military in the area.

The battle group has travelled to Syria from the North Sea through the English Channel in the biggest such naval deployment in recent years as part of Russia's military intervention in Syria.

Russia says it has ceased strikes on rebel-held east Aleppo since October 18 and has also held brief unilateral ceasefires on the ground it calls "humanitarian pauses."