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21,000 people displaced by military operation in Iraqi city of Mosul

Xinhua, November 3, 2016 Adjust font size:

Nearly 21,000 people were currently internally displaced due to military operations to retake the Iraqi city of Mosul, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said here Wednesday.

"Half of them have found shelter in camps and the other half in host communities," Dujarric said at a daily news briefing here, citing the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

"The UN and partners are working around the clock to provide effective and immediate life-saving assistance and shelter within a maximum of 48 hours to people crossing the frontlines," Dujarric said.

"We are also assisting host communities and vulnerable residents of newly retaken villages," he added.

Iraqi security forces recaptured more villages in mid-October from the Islamic State (IS) militants, as part of a major offensive aimed at liberating the city of Mosul, the last major IS stronghold in Iraq.

Mosul, some 400 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, has been under IS control since June 2014, when Iraqi government forces abandoned their weapons and fled, enabling IS militants to take control of parts of Iraq's northern and western regions. Endit