‘1,000 MILITANTS DEAD’
The Iraqi military estimates there are 5,000-6,000 insurgents in Mosul, dug in amid civilians to hamper air strikes, resisting the advancing troops with suicide car bombs and sniper and mortar fire that also kill civilians.
Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, believed to be somewhere near the Syrian border, has told his fighters there can be no retreat from the city.
Iraqi special forces have killed nearly 1,000 militants so far, Major General Abdul Ghani al-Asadi, a commander of elite counter-terrorism troops told Reuters.
Some 74,000 civilians have fled Mosul so far, and the United Nations is preparing for a worst case scenario which foresees more than a million people made homeless as winter descends. – READ MORE
