'Surrender or die'

Iraqi forces pushed deeper into Mosul's Old City yesterday after launching a final assault on the Islamic State group, warning civilians to stay inside and telling jihadists to "surrender or die".

Iraqi forces launched the operation Sunday to retake the district, the last part of Iraq's second city still held by IS after a months-long offensive.

Commanders say the jihadists are putting up fierce resistance and there are fears for more than 100,000 civilians believed to be trapped in the maze of narrow streets.

Staff Major General Maan al-Saadi, a top commander in Iraq's elite Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS), told AFP that heavy fighting had resumed at dawn yesterday.

"At 6:00 am, we pushed deeper into the Old City and took control of new areas in the Faruq neighbourhood," he said.

"Daesh resistance has been fierce," he said, using an Arabic acronym for the jihadist group.

"They have blocked every entrance, planted IEDs (improvised explosive devices) and booby trapped houses our forces might be near," he said. "Penetrating was very difficult. Today the fighting is face to face."

The push into Mosul's historic heart on the west bank of the river Tigris marks the culmination of a months-long campaign by Iraqi forces to retake IS's last major urban stronghold in the country.

The US-led coalition battling IS in Iraq and neighbouring Syria has backed the offensive including with months of air strikes.

The loss of Mosul would mark the effective end of the Iraqi portion of the cross-border "caliphate" IS declared in summer 2014 after seizing swathes of Iraq and Syria.