Iraqi forces battle deep inside Mosul

Iraqi forces battled the Islamic State group deep inside Mosul Thursday, piling pressure on jihadists who have no more escape routes but leaving trapped civilians in the crossfire.

Elite forces gained new ground in east Mosul, looking for fresh momentum as stiffer-than-expected IS resistance threatened to bog down the five-week-old offensive against the jihadists' last major stronghold in Iraq.

Maan al-Saadi, a commander with the Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS), told AFP on the front line in Mosul that his forces were battling IS in the neighbourhood of Al-Khadraa in Iraq's second city.

"They cannot flee. They have two choices -- give up or die," he said.

Over the past few days, Iraqi forces have cut off the main supply line running from Mosul to the western border with Syria, where IS still controls the city of Raqa.

The US-led coalition also bombed bridges over the Tigris river that splits Mosul in two, reducing the jihadists' ability to resupply the eastern front. An old British-era bridge, which cannot be used by heavy vehicles, is the only one still standing in the city.

A senior CTS commander said Wednesday that 40 percent of eastern Mosul had now been retaken.

Iraqi forces launched a major offensive on October 17 to retake Mosul, where jihadist supremo Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed a caliphate in 2014.

They are also edging towards the city from a northern front as well as from the south, where they are within striking distance of Mosul airport.

The authorities have not released casualty figures since the start of the offensive but fighters have admitted being surprised by how fierce IS resistance has been.

The intensity of the fighting has been one of the factors preventing civilians from fleeing to the safety of some of the camps being set up around Mosul.

The United Nations had expected around 200,000 people to flee their homes in the first few weeks of the offensive, but only about a third of that number have been displaced so far.