Four months ago, thousands of Iraqi and Kurdish troops, supported by the United States, France, Britain, and other western nations, began a massive operation to retake Iraq's second largest city of Mosul from ISIS militants. About two weeks ago, Iraqi government troops began to push into the western half of ISIS-occupied Mosul, after securing the eastern side. Beginning with the airport, troops have been going from neighborhood to neighborhood, house to house, facing fierce resistance from ISIS militants, including suicide attacks, improvised drone bombings, snipers, and booby traps. Tens of thousands more Iraqis have fled the new battles, joining many more thousands in overfull refugee camps throughout Iraq. Also, see previous stories on the battle for Mosul here, here, and here.
The Battle for Mosul Moves West
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A man cries as he carries his daughter while fleeing from an ISIS-controlled part of Mosul towards Iraqi special forces soldiers during a battle in Mosul, Iraq, on March 4, 2017. #
Goran Tomasevic / Reuters -
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An injured Iraqi Emergency Response Division (ERD) soldier hit by a mortar is held by another officer as they wait for medics to arrive at the ISIS-occupied Mosul Airport in west Mosul on February 23, 2017. Iraqi forces encountered stiff resistance with improvised explosives, heavy mortar fire and snipers hampering their advance before they successfully took the airport. #
Martyn Aim / Getty -
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An Iraqi special forces soldier checks men for explosive belts as they cross from an ISIS-controlled part of Mosul to an Iraqi forces-controlled area on March 4, 2017. #
Goran Tomasevic / Reuters -
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An Iraqi Federal policeman gives water to one of two handcuffed suspected ISIS militants after they were arrested inside their home on the western side of Mosul on February 27. 2017. #
Khalid Mohammed / AP -
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A view of ISIS slogans painted along the walls of the tunnel that was used by Islamic State militants as an underground training camp in a hillside overlooking Mosul, on March 4, 2017. The slogan reads, "We will conquer Rome, God willing". #
Alaa Al-Marjani / Reuters -
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A convoy of tanks and armored vehicles of the Iraqi army's 34th brigade advances near Talul al-Atshana, on the southwestern outskirts of Mosul, on February 27, 2017. #
Aris Messinis / AFP / Getty -
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A lion in its cage looks at a dead lioness in a grave in Mosul's zoo on February 2, 2017. Once a peaceful animal park, the zoo, like much of the city, was destroyed by months of fighting between Iraqi forces and ISIS militants. #
Muhammad Hamed / Reuters -
Zakaria Imad Ahmed, 12, is treated by doctors in a first aid clinic in the Zahra neighborhood after he was hit in the head by shrapnel from a mortar fired by ISIS militants on February 6, 2017. He and his younger brother and sister were playing outside when a mortar dropped nearby and shrapnel hit parts of their bodies. #
Bram Janssen / AP -
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