Iraqis living in villages of Mosul, fled from Islamic State arrive to Erbil in Iraq on November 4, 2016. Ahmet ?zgi - Anadolu Agency
Mosul, Iraq: Iraqi forces battled jihadists inside Mosul for the third day running Sunday while civilians risked their lives dodging bombs and snipers to slip out of the city.
The assault allowed some civilians to flee the city, most of whose million-plus residents remained trapped inside, sheltering both from their jihadist rulers and incoming fire from government forces and US-led coalition aircraft.
Some of the first civilians to manage to escape the city proper arrived at a camp near Khazir in Kurdish-controlled territory on Saturday.
Abu Sara dodged gunfire, bombs, mortar rounds and coalition strikes to flee his neighbourhood of Al-Samah, such was his desperation to leave what many civilians who escaped IS rule describe as an open-air prison.
"We walked several miles, taking with us only the clothes we were wearing and white flags we waved the entire way," said the 34-year-old, wearing a brown fake leather jacket.
While the corridors called for by aid groups to allow the safe passage of civilians have yet to materialise, arrivals in the displacement camps dotting the area have increased markedly.
The government said it had taken in 9,000 displaced people in the past two days.
The International Organization for Migration said a total of about 34,000 people had been displaced since the start of rhe offensive on October 17.
Relief organisations were fighting the clock to build up their shelter capacity ahead of the feared mass exodus from Mosul.
Despite IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi giving his fighters a pep talk on Thursday, urging them not to retreat from Mosul in a rare audio message, the outcome of the battle was in little doubt.
