Battle of Mosul

More than 5 million children are in urgent need of aid in Iraq, the United Nations said on Thursday, describing the war on Islamic State as "one of the most brutal" in modern history.

"Across Iraq, children continue to witness sheer horror and unimaginable violence," the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) said in a statement.

Police have detained nine suspects in an operation targeting Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants in the southern province of Adana. 

The operation was carried out early on June 22 after police received intelligence on a possible jihadist cell in the province. 

Iraqi forces began storming the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)-held Old City of Mosul on June 18, an assault they hope will be the last in the eight-month campaign to seize the militants' stronghold.

The historic district is the last still under control of the  militants in the city which used to be their capital in Iraq. 

Writing in an encrypted chat room, Islamic State sympathizers and militants celebrated the three-year anniversary of the terrorist organization’s capture of Mosul, Iraq’s third-largest city.

Despite losing most of Mosul to the U.S.-backed international coalition, the IS supporters vowed that they would return and take control over the entire city once more.

Iraqi forces retook an area near the Syrian border from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) yesterday as part of operations to expel the jihadists from strongholds in the country's north.

The Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization) forces announced the "total liberation" of Al-Baaj district "with support from the air force."

On the front lines, the jagged teeth of a young soldier’s bulldozer mark the beginning of Iraq’s territory and the end of the Islamic State’s.

Iraqi forces have recaptured around half of two neighborhoods in west Mosul that are among the targets of a broad offensive against jihadists launched last week, officers said on June 2.

French special forces have for months enlisted Iraqi soldiers to hunt and kill French nationals who have joined the senior ranks of Islamic State, according to Iraqi officers and current and former French officials.

Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL/Daesh) tested poisonous chemicals on prisoners in a bid to produce easily-obtainable chemical weapons for local use and potential terrorist attacks in the West, records recovered from Mosul by Iraqi soldiers and obtained by The Times show.

As US-backed forces are on the brink of liberating Mosul in northern Iraq, reports are emerging that the advancing allied forces are executing captured ISIS fighters. Some ISIS jihadists are killed in front lines, while others are executed after being interrogated.