Over 68,000 Iraqi people flee Mosul, UN says

Over one month into Mosul military operations, more than 68,000 Iraqis are currently displaced from Mosul and adjacent districts, a UN spokesman said here Tuesday, citing the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

"Over the past four days, the agency says, total displacement has increased by more than 8,300 individuals," Stephane Dujarric said at a daily news briefing here.

"As fighting is progressing inside the city limits of Mosul, more individuals have been displaced from inside the sub-district of Mosul."

The majority of the displaced are from Mosul district, and almost 98 percent of the displaced are currently residing within the Ninewa governorate, the spokesman added.

On Oct. 17, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who is also the commander-in-chief of the Iraqi forces, announced the start of a major offensive to retake Mosul, the country's second largest city, in a bid to liberate the northern city, the last major Islamic State (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