Two months into fight for Mosul, more than 100,000 flee the Iraqi city

BAGHDAD — Two months into the battle for Mosul, more than 100,000 people have fled Iraq's second largest city as the military makes slow progress against entrenched Islamic State fighters, the International Organization for Migration said Sunday.

Iraqi military forces in the tens of thousands have seized control of about a quarter of the city since the operation began Oct. 17, but they still encounter pockets of stiff resistance from the militant group that seized Mosul two years ago.

The migration organization said the city, home to more than 1 million people before the offensive started, has seen at least 103,872 Iraqis leave since then, the Associated Press reported.

U.S. airstrikes aim to stop ISIL car bombs in Mosul

But recent advances by Iraqi government forces have prompted some residents to stay. Abo Saif, in his Al-Zuhur neighborhood of northeastern Mosul, had tried to figure out a way to leave without his family getting killed, but now says he has no desire to go anymore.

The Islamic State "fled our neighborhood, and now we live under the government's power,” Saif said. “The Islamic State was saying Iraqi forces would never be able to retake the city. But they did take our area and will keep going, deeply into the city."

Saif said he and his family are surviving on army rations. "We don't have water — the water main pipelines were destroyed during the clashes," he said. "We live on what the special forces are offering us.”

He remained optimistic that the government would eventually dislodge the militants, plus he doesn't want to risk moving his children to a refugee camp during this particularly cold winter. “Iraqi forces told us to stay. We are not planning on leaving the city,” Saif said.

Lt. Gen. Abdul Amir Yarallah said the Iraqi army, allied militias and the U.S.-led coalition were making slow but sure progress on the eastern side of Mosul but were facing more resistance from the southeast.

"We retook the Al Allam neighborhood from Islamic State control, and we caused them big losses," said Yarallah, of Iraq’s Counter Terrorism Service, a special office coordinating the fight against the Islamic State.

"We lost many men in the Salam neighborhood," he said. "We are trying to get the control of the hospital that the Islamic State used as a headquarters. We have soldiers stranded in this location, and we are planning to send special forces to end the siege."

Yarallah noted that Islamic State fighters have entrenched themselves, planted land mines and erected other barriers in anticipation of the government’s assault.

The London-based Conflict Armament Research group recently reported that the Islamic State had created a sophisticated supply chain and accounting system for making weapons, producing tens of thousands of rockets and mortar rounds.

Army Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend in Baghdad said Iraq and the U.S.-led coalition are making real progress against the Islamic State. "This operation would challenge any army,” Townsend said, adding that the Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS, was losing its capacity to fight a war.

“We have conducted hundreds of strikes to destroy ISIL oil infrastructure. We assess these efforts have cost ISIL between $4.5 million and $6.5 million a month,” Townsend said. “The liberation of key population centers and oil fields has further limited the enemy's access to taxes and oil revenue.”

Nabeel reported from Istanbul.