Civilians flee Daesh-held Mosul's outskirts: Source

NINEVEH, Iraq

At least 700 civilians who fled from recently-captured villages south of Mosul have reached displacement camps set up in the Al-Khazir area some 40 kilometers east of the Daesh-held city, according to Iraqi military sources.

Kamuran Hawrami, an officer in the Iraqi army’s Al-Khazir Front Command, told Anadolu Agency that civilians fleeing combat areas had been taken to the camps in vehicles provided by northern Iraq’s Kurdish Regional Government.

One week ago, Iraqi forces, backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, launched a much-anticipated offensive to retake Mosul.

While most villages on the city’s outskirts have since fallen before the onslaught, Daesh remains in control of Mosul, which it overran in mid-2014.

*Reporting by Muhammet Kursun; Writing by Sibel Ugurlu