An Iraqi man walks outside Mosul's University on January 22, 2017, a week after the Iraqi counter-terrorism service (CTS) retook it from ISIS jihadists. Iraqi forces battled the last holdout jihadists in east Mosul after commanders declared victory there and quickly set their sights on the city's west, where more tough fighting awaits. #

A man stands near thick smoke and fire at oil wells that were set ablaze by ISIS militants before they fled the oil-producing region of Qayyara, Iraq, on January 28,2017. #

Displaced Iraqis, who fled fighting between Iraqi security forces and ISIS militants, return to their homes in neighborhoods retaken by Iraqi government forces in the eastern side of Mosul, Iraq, on January 4, 2017. #

A volunteer paints over a mural that had been displayed by the Islamic State group, on the eastern side of Mosul, Iraq, on January 30, 2017. Arabic reads, "Now the fighting begins." #

Christian militia fighters from the Nineveh Plain Protection Units (NPU) take pictures of four men, allegedly members of ISIS, that were found inside a tunnel in Mosul, as they sit blindfolded in the back of a pick-up truck in Qaraqosh, Iraq, on December 20, 2016. #

A soldier from the U.S Army stands guard next to a defaced Christian statue during Christmas Day mass at Mar Hanna church in Qaraqosh on December 25, 2016 in Mosul, Iraq. The predominantly Christian towns of Bartella and Qaraqosh on the outskirts of Mosul were recently liberated from ISIS as part of the Mosul offensive. The towns were heavily damaged and churches burned and defaced while under ISIS control. #

Civilians present their ration cards in order to receive humanitarian food aid being distributed by the Iraqi Red Crescent, in the eastern side of Mosul on January 31, 2017. #

An Iraqi flag flies over the damaged building of al-Salam hospital in Mosul on January 10, 2017. The Mosul hospital has been left almost completely gutted by the battle to retake it. Al-Salam hospital was the scene of one of the most significant setbacks for Iraqi troops in the Mosul operation, but was retaken this month after a stepped-up campaign of US-led coalition airstrikes, despite the coalition’s initial reluctance to use airstrikes against ISIS there. #

Iraqi internally displaced groom Jassim Mohammed walks with his bride, Amena Ali, during their wedding ceremony at a camp for internally displaced people, in Khazir, near Mosul, Iraq, on December 8, 2016. #

Iraqi special forces troops pose with a national flag Iraqi flag as they hold a captured flag of the Islamic State taken from inside Nineveh Hotel on the eastern side of Mosul on January 19, 2017. #

A cloud of smoke rises from a car bomb belonging to ISIS militants after a controlled explosion by the Iraqi Federal police, during clashes with ISIS in eastern Mosul on January 13, 2017. #

Rami Raad, a fighter with the Shiite Popular Mobilization Forces, places a cross and Iraqi flag on his uniform as he stands guard in the recently-liberated and predominantly Christian town of Tilkaif, Iraq, on January 21, 2017. #

An Iraqi boy sits at a desk at a school in Mosul's eastern Gogjali neighborhood on January 23, 2017, as scores of schools resumed their activities in the areas government forces recently recaptured from ISIS during the government's ongoing military operation. They have been waiting for two and half years and the children of Iraq's east Mosul are flocking to enroll in their reopened schools, determined not to waste another day. #

Iraqi Special Operations Forces react after a car bomb exploded during an operation to clear the al-Andalus district of ISIS militants, in Mosul, on January 16, 2017. #