Iraqi forces said yesterday they had captured a key town some 15km south of Mosul, while an aid agency reported a sharp rise in the numbers of civilians fleeing since fighting reached the outskirts of the Islamic State-held city.
Government forces took full control of the town of Hammam al-Alil after clashes with militants, Iraqi federal police chief Raed Chaker said.
“The Iraqi flag has been raised atop the government buildings in the town,” Chaker added without giving details.
Hammam al-Alil is the main town south of Mosul along the Tigris river, one of the lines along which Iraqi forces are advancing on the city.
On Friday, government forces said they had captured six districts in eastern Mosul after entering the city’s boundaries three days earlier.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, on what state television said was a visit to forward lines near Mosul, warned that a “fifth column” might engage in acts of terrorism “to aid Daesh [Islamic State] in the final moments.”
Surrounded by officers of the elite counter-terrorism forces dressed in black uniform fatigues, al-Abadi promised residents of the city that they would soon be liberated.
“My words to the terrorists are that if you wish to save your lives you should lay down your weapons,” he said. “There is no place for you in Iraq.”
Al-Abadi also visited a church in a village near Mosul, the broadcaster reported.
The plains north-east of Mosul, now recaptured by Iraqi and Kurdish forces, were a stronghold of Christian and other minorities until the area was overrun by Islamic State in 2014.
Mosul is the only major Iraqi city still held by the militants.
An aid agency said yesterday that the numbers of displaced people had risen sharply, with over 9,000 new arrivals in camps outside the city receiving initial food and water packages the previous day.
That compared with a previous total of under 7,000 people since the launch of the US-backed campaign on October 17.
“This is the beginning of a massive exodus from Mosul city,” Wolfgang Gressmann of the Norwegian Refugee Council warned. “We must insist that civilians fleeing have genuinely safe exit routes out of the city.”
The agency said at least 1.2mn people were thought to be trapped inside Mosul and some 700,000 “might soon require humanitarian assistance.”
Meanwhile, 25 civilians and a policeman were killed by a roadside bomb as a convoy of people fled the Islamic State-held town of Hawija south-east of Mosul, a local police official said yesterday.
The explosion took place on Friday and the dead were mostly women and children, the official said on condition of anonymity. In recent weeks, the Al Qaeda splinter group has stepped up its attacks in different parts of Iraq in a response to the Mosul onslaught.
Its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi recently released a rare voice recording, ordering his fighters to hold their ground.
In recent months, the Al Qaeda splinter group has suffered military setbacks and lost ground in Iraq and Syria.