Iraqi forces make further advances into Mosul

Iraqi troops have advanced on Mosul and regrouped to clear neighbourhoods and houses occupied by Islamic State.

Special forces control the Zahra neighbourhood of the city and have taken at least half of the Aden area after establishing a foothold in a small slice of territory in the east of Mosul.

Iraqi troops are converging on several fronts in the country's largest city and the last major IS holdout in Iraq, while Peshmerga forces are holding a line outside the city in the north.

The Iraqi army and militarised police units have approached from the south and government-sanctioned Shia militias are guarding the western approaches.

Video: Iraqi police and local youths enjoy the muddy water of a spring

The offensive has slowed down in recent days as the forces push into densely populated areas and cannot rely on airstrikes and shelling because of the risk to civilians.

But rights groups have accused Iraqi government forces of killing and torturing civilians south of the city - the first reports of alleged abuse in the campaign to retake Mosul.

Amnesty International said "up to six" people were found dead last month in the Shura and Qayyara districts who security forces believes had ties to IS.

Lynn Maalouf, deputy director for research at Amnesty's Beirut office, said: "Men in federal police uniform have carried out multiple unlawful killings, apprehending and then deliberately killing in cold blood residents in villages south of Mosul."

Image Caption: Priests at the Mart Shoomy Church in Bahzani survey the destruction carried out by IS

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said at least 37 men suspected of being affiliated to IS had been detained by Iraqi and Kurdish forces from checkpoints, villages, screening centres and camps for displaced people around Mosul and Hawija.

A spokesman for Iraq's Interior Ministry denied there had been any violations.

About eight miles from the city Peshmerga forces have continued to take territory in the town of Bashiq, which is believed to still contain dozens of IS fighters.

At an area church in territory recently freed from the militants' grip, priests rang bells for the first time in two years as the Peshmerga worked to secure the area.

Priest Elkhoury Alfaran Elkhoury, at the Mart Shoomy Church in Bahzani, a village near Bashiqa, said that IS had done a lot of damage to the church while they occupied the area.

He said: "They want to give a message to the world and that message is destruction, their message is death."

Video: Thousands of civilians flee Mosul

On the banks of the Tigris River, men sat and watched, smiling with relief as Iraqi policemen, soldiers and local youths bathed in muddy spring water in a town that was recaptured from IS State just a few days ago.

Hammam al Alil was seized from the jihadists by Iraqi Federal Police units last week.

Residents said they were unable to reap the benefits of the springs for more than two years under the rule of IS.

One resident, Taha Daoud, said: "People used to come to these springs from all around the world, from the Gulf, Europe, Asia, they would all come here. 

"This area was open to the world, everyone was happy, people would stay here for three or four days.

"That was until the enemy of humanity came to us, the indescribable enemy that has no values or morals, the enemy, Daesh who came to us from the land of ignorance.

"They prohibited all men from undressing and swimming in the spring."

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