Eight 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. Now, after months of war, the Iraqi military says it has reached the final few days of the battle, having encircled an estimated 350 remaining Islamic State militants in Mosul’s Old City . Reuters reports that more than 50,000 civilians remain trapped in the Old City, as ISIS fighters are “dug in among civilians in crumbling houses, making extensive use of booby traps, suicide bombers and sniper fire to slow down the advance of Iraqi troops.” Also, see previous stories on the battle for Mosul here, here, here, and here.
The Battle for Mosul Enters Its Final Stage
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A member of the Iraqi federal police aims an assault rifle during an armed exchange while advancing through the Old City of Mosul on June 28, 2017, as the offensive continues to retake the last district held by ISIS fighters. #
Ahmad Al-Rubaye / AFP / Getty -
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An Iraqi-modified T-72M tank belonging to the pro-government Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization) paramilitary forces advances towards the UNESCO-listed ancient city of Hatra, southwest of the northern city of Mosul, during an offensive to retake the area from ISIS, on April 26, 2017. #
Ahmad Al-Rubaye / AFP / Getty -
Iraqi civilians who were injured in a suicide attack as people were escaping the Old City of Mosul, sit on an Iraqi forces vehicle as they are taken to a makeshift hospital on June 23, 2017. A suicide bomber blew himself up among civilians fleeing Mosul's Old City, where Iraqi forces were gaining ground against jihadists mounting a fierce but desperate defense, officers said. #
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Three year old Eslam Ahmad, who, along with his mother and father, received serious injuries after an improvised explosive device hidden in a crate detonated near him in Mosul, sleeps in a hospital bed on April 17, 2017 in the Erbil Emergency Hospital in Erbil, Iraq. Large numbers of people who have been injured in ongoing fighting between Iraqi government forces and Islamic State in Mosul are receiving treatment in a number of hospitals in nearby Erbil where doctors and nurses from around the world work to care for the victims of war. #
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Relatives react next the body of Suheyil Najn Abdullah after he was killed by a sniper trying to flee fighting between Iraqi security forces and Islamic State on the western side of Mosul on March 23, 2017. #
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Displaced Iraqis walk between tents at Khazir camp for the internally displaced, located between Arbil and Mosul, on June 5, 2017. Some 32,000 people who fled from ISIS live in a sea of around 7,000 tents at Khazir camp, but a recent spike in cases of scorpion stings and snake bites is spreading a new kind of paranoia. #
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Zeid Ali, 12, left, and Hodayfa Ali, 11, comfort each other after their house was hit and collapsed during fighting between Iraqi forces and Islamic State militants in Mosul on June 24, 2017. The Ali cousins said some of their family members were still under the rubble. #
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Children wait as their mother collects food being distributed in a neighborhood recently retaken by Iraqi security forces during fighting on the western side of Mosul on March 31, 2017. #
Felipe Dana / AP -
Iraqi women cry over their brother's body, who was killed by a mortar shell fired by ISIS jihadists at civilians who were gathered to receive aid, in the Al-Risala neighborhood on March 22, 2017. #
Ahmad Al-Rubaye / AFP / Getty -
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An Iraqi counter-terrorism forces member stands guard in the Mosul al-Jadida area on March 26, 2017, following air strikes in which civilians were reportedly killed during an ongoing offensive against ISIS. #
Ahmad Al-Rubaye / AFP / Getty -
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Debris flies as smoke rises after an artillery attack on Islamic State militant positions by the Iraqi Army in the Shifa neighborhood of western Mosul on June 15, 2017. #
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A hospital bed is left in the ruins of Al-Salam Hospital after the building was destroyed during fighting between Iraqi forces and ISIS, on April 11, 2017, in Mosul, Iraq. #
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US soldiers advising Iraqi forces, in the city of Mosul on June 21, 2017, during the ongoing offensive by Iraqi troops to retake the last district still held by the Islamic State group. #
Mohamed El-Shahed / AFP / Getty -
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A girl looks out from the arms of a displaced resident, who fled home due to the ongoing fighting between the Iraqi forces and Islamic State militants near the Old City in western Mosul on June 13, 2017. #
Erik de Castro / Reuters -
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Ameen Mukdad, a violinist from Mosul who lived under ISIS rule for two and a half years, while they destroyed his musical instruments, performs at Nabi Yunus shrine in eastern Mosul, Iraq, on April 19, 2017. #
Muhammad Hamed / Reuters
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