Iraqi troops push for last ISIL holdouts in Mosul

Aid groups express alarm over civilians' safety
as Iraqi forces seek to push last remaining ISIL
fighters out of Mosul.

Iraqi forces have launched a broad assault on parts of
Mosul, closing in on the remaining pockets of territory
 held by ISIL, amid growing concerns over the safety of hundreds of thousands of civilians at risk of being caught
 in the crossfire.

Saturday's offensive to retake three ISIL-held
 neighbourhoods north of Mosul's Old City is the latest push
 in the more than seven-month battle to drive ISIL out of its last stronghold in Iraq.

"Army forces attacked Al-Shifaa neighbourhood
 and the Republican Hospital, federal police forces Al-Zinjili
neighbourhood, and Counter-Terrorism forces attacked Al-
Saha al-Oula neighbourhood," the Joint Operations 
Command said in a statement, speaking about the locations on the west bank of the River Tigris.

At least 15 Iraqi soldiers were killed in ISIL suicide 
attacks in the first day of the offensive, security sources
 said on Sunday. More than 30 ISIL fighters were also killed in
clashes.

The three neighbourhoods are seen as the last areas
 that separate Iraqi forces from ISIL's last bastion in Mosul's Old City.

They have narrow streets and closely-spaced buildings 
which pose significant challenge to the forces seeking to oust ISIL, also known as ISIS.

Military and political analysts expect that it could take
 several days for the Iraqi forces to gain hold of these territories, before making their final push for Mosul's
 Old City.

The United Nations expressed "deep concern" for the
hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped behind ISIL
 lines, in a statement on Saturday from the organisation's under- secretary general for humanitarian affairs, Stephen O'Brien.

"Although the UN is not present in the areas where
 fighting is occurring, we have received very disturbing 
reports of families being shut inside booby-trapped homes and of children being deliberately targeted by snipers," he said.

The UN last week said up to 200,000 more people 
could flee Mosul as fighting moves to the Old City.

About 700,000 people, or a third of the pre-war city's
population, have already fled, seeking refuge either with
friends and relatives or in camps or neighbouring towns 
and cities.

In Erbil, east of Mosul, thousands of people have been
brought to receive treatment, including many children.

"I was trying to escape from the Old City at 3am and two
bullets hit me," a young boy told Al Jazeera from an Erbil
hospital. "One ripped through my leg, the other in my groin."

Al Jazeera's Osama bin Javaid, reporting from Erbil,
 said the child's story is repeated hundreds of times in each hospital of the city.

"Almost all children in this ward are from the embattled
 city of Mosul. Most of them have been wounded as they
 try to reach towards safety, but in densely populated Mosul, where bombs continue to fall and snipers continue to shoot, there is no place that is safe," he said.

ISIL overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in 2014,
but Iraqi forces backed by US-led air raids have since
regained much of the territory they lost to the group.

Iraqi forces launched a major operation to retake Mosul in
October last year, fighting their way to the city and retaking its
eastern side before setting their sights on its smaller but
more densely populated west.

The battle has taken a heavy toll on civilians, pushing
hundreds of thousands to flee, while hundreds more have
been killed or wounded.