Iraqi forces battle IS to advance 'within 5km' of Mosul

Iraqi forces are reported to have advanced to within 5km of the outskirts of Mosul, as the battle to liberate Iraq's second city from the Islamic State group entered its second week.

Arabic and English media reports on Monday said Iraqi counter-terrorism units had advanced into Bazwaia, a village within striking distance of Iraq's second city.

Social media users posted what were purported to be soldiers in the village, although their veracity could not be confirmed by Middle East Eye.

Translation: Anti-terrorism forces take control of Bazwaia... approaching Gogjali on eastern entrance to Mosul #BellsOfVictory

Federal forces and Kurdish peshmerga fighters were moving forward in several areas, AFP correspondents on various fronts said, but the militants were hitting back with shelling, sniper fire, suicide car bombs and booby traps.

American officials said the coalition was providing the most air support yet to the operation.

"One week into Mosul operation, all objectives met thus far, and more coalition air strikes than any other 7-day period of war against ISIL (IS)," Brett McGurk, the top US envoy to the 60-nation coalition, wrote on social media.

"There were 32 strikes with 1,776 munitions delivered against Daesh (IS) targets for the week of October 17-October 23," the spokesman for the coalition, Colonel John Dorrian, told AFP.

He said those strikes had destroyed 136 IS fighting positions, 18 tunnels and 26 car bombs.

The offensive, launched on 17 October, aims to retake towns and villages surrounding Mosul before elite troops will breach the city and engage die-hard militants in street-to-street fighting.

Turkey tensions rise

Also on the eastern side of Mosul, federal troops were battling IS on Monday in Qaraqosh, which used to be the largest Christian town in the country.

Army forces entered the town for the third day running but armoured convoys deployed around it were met with shelling from inside, an AFP correspondent reported.

Federal forces also scored gains on the southern front, where they have been making quick progress, taking one village after another as they work their way up the Tigris Valley.

On the northern front, Kurdish peshmerga forces were closing in on the IS-held town of Bashiqa.

Turkey, which has a base in the area, said on Sunday it had provided artillery support following a request from the peshmerga.

The presence of Turkish troops on Iraqi soil is deeply unpopular in Baghdad and the Joint Operations Command on Monday vehemently denied any Turkish participation.

Peshmerga commanders denied to the Iraqi Kurdish TV network Rudaw that they had requested Turkish assistance.

But AFP reporters near Bashiqa said artillery fire coming from the Turkish base had been visible on several occasions since the start of operations a week ago.

While an increasingly pragmatic IS has tended in recent months to relinquish some of its positions to avoid taking too many casualties, US officials said the group was mounting a spirited defence of Mosul.

Calm returns to Kirkuk

If IS loses Mosul in Iraq, only Raqqa in Syria will remain as the last major city under the militants' control in either country.

"They have made a very good job of preparing their defences around the city," one US military official said.

The official said IS's strategy appeared to be to trade "non-necessary space" around Mosul for casualties among federal and Kurdish ranks.

The coalition estimates the number of IS fighters defending Mosul - the city where IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed a "caliphate" two years ago -at 4,000 to 7,000.

Seeking to distract attention, the militants have attempted to hit back with attacks elsewhere in Iraq, including in the remote western town of Rutba on Sunday.

They briefly seized the mayor's office, captured and executed at least five people - civilians and policemen - and still controlled two districts on Monday, army commanders said.

Two days earlier, IS sleeper cells in Kirkuk joined up with gunmen infiltrating the northern Iraqi city to launch a brazen raid that saw the militants attack several government buildings.

The attack sparked clashes that lasted three days as security forces imposed a curfew to hunt down attackers holed up in several buildings across the city.

The provincial governor, Najmeddin Karim, told AFP on Monday that the attack was over and life was returning to normal.

He said more than 74 IS militants were killed during the three-day unrest, which left at least 46 other people dead, most of them members of the security forces.