Elite forces seize Mosul district

Elite Iraqi troops battled the Islamic State group in the streets of Mosul yesterday, as the UN reported IS jihadists had executed dozens of people inside the city for alleged "treason".

With IS also on the defensive in neighbouring Syria, US-backed forces pressed an advance on jihadist bastion Raqa after a sandstorm eased.

The high winds in the desert which separates the Syrian Kurdish-Arab militia alliance from the jihadists' stronghold in the Euphrates Valley had slowed their advance on Thursday as visibility levels plummeted.

Iraqi forces too had regrouped after meeting stronger than expected resistance from IS fighters on the east bank of the Tigris River which runs through Mosul after thrusting into the built-up area last week.

Commanders of Iraq's elite Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) said that troops were advancing on two eastern neighbourhoods of the city.

Inside Mosul itself, IS fighters reportedly shot dead more than 60 people this week and hung some of their bodies from poles after claiming they had collaborated with Iraqi troops, the UN human rights office said Yesterday.

The battle to retake Mosul is now in its fourth week, and while troops have entered the built-up area, there are weeks, if not months, of fighting still to go.

In Syria, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said their advance on Raqa was back on track after a sandstorm which swept through the area on Thursday eased.

Fighting has focused on the IS-held village of Al-Heisha, around 40 kilometres north of Raqa. An AFP correspondent reported heavy air strikes on Friday morning by the US-led coalition supporting the SDF forces.

The military in Russia, which has sided with the Damascus regime, said Friday it had evidence of the use of chemical weapons by rebels in Syria's besieged eastern city of Aleppo, a charge denied by the opposition. "Experts from the Russian defence ministry have found unexploded artillery ammunition belonging to terrorists which contains toxic substances," the military said in a statement.