Five children and two women are receiving treatment for exposure to chemical agents near the Iraqi city of Mosul, where Daesh is fighting off an offensive by US-backed Iraqi forces, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Friday.

The ICRC “condemns in the strongest possible terms the use of chemical weapons during fighting around the Iraqi city of Mosul”, it said in a statement.

ICRC medical teams “are offering full support to the local medical teams” treating the seven patients admitted over the past two days to Rozhawa hospital, near Mosul, it said.

Thousands of civilians fled Mosul overnight as Iraqi forces advanced north of a sprawling military base near the city’s airport on Friday.

Iraq’s special forces pushed into the Wadi Hajar district in western Mosul and retook the area from the Daesh group Friday, according to Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool, spokesman of the Joint Military Operations

Special forces Brig. Gen. Haider Al Obaidi said clearing operations were ongoing in the area and his forces were close to linking up with the militarised federal police forces who were pushing up along the western bank of the Tigris river.

Iraqi forces, including special operations forces and federal police units, launched an attack on the western part of Mosul nearly two weeks ago to dislodge Daesh. Since the offensive began, more than 28,000 people have been displaced by the fighting, according to the United Nations.

Nahla Ahmad, 50 fled Mosul late Thursday night, walking more than five kilometres from her home in the Shuhada neighbourhood.

“All the families were hiding behind a wall,” she said, explaining how they escaped an Daesh-held part of the city. “We gave the children Valium so they wouldn’t cry and (the Daesh terrorists) wouldn’t catch us.”

Ahmad, like most of the civilians who have escaped Mosul in the past week, fled through Mamun neighbourhood. The district is partially controlled by Iraq’s special forces.

Maj. Saif Ali, who is stationed in Mamun, said huge crowds of civilians began pouring into the area from neighbouring districts just after midnight. Ali said civilians in western Mosul are becoming increasingly desperate as food and water supplies begin to run out.

“In total 7,000 people fled through this area last night,” he said. “We were up all night trying to control the crowds.”

By late morning nearly all the families had been moved out of Mamun. The neighbourhood was littered with discarded clothing and blankets piled up in empty lots and on street corners.

Iraqi forces deployed east of Mamun advanced into Wadi Hajar, a neighbourhood north of the Ghazlani military base.

The US-led coalition dropped more than 15 munitions in Mosul on Friday, Ali said, saying they targeted car bombs, sniper positions and small Daesh mortar units.

At a screening centre south of the city, hundreds of women and children were gathered on the cement ground of an old gas station as men were screened in a parking lot next door. An Iraqi intelligence officer walked with an informant past the rows of men and boys sitting on the ground before they had their names checked against a database.

Muthana Younis also fled Mosul late Thursday night.

“We waited until all the Daesh fighters left the streets,” he said, his track suit covered in mud from the journey. Younis walked for hours, crossing more than five kilometres with his mother, father, brother and sister.

“There were mortars and we could hear gunfire,” Younis said. He said explaining his younger siblings were so scared at times he had to carry them. “But we had to flee, we had run out of food

source : gulfnews