Iraqi troops assault Mosul's dense urban areas

Iraqi special forces sweeping in from southern and eastern districts of Mosul began attacking more densely populated urban sectors of Iraq's second largest city Friday, in the second day of the assault on dug-in Islamic State fighters.

Lt. Col. Muhanad al-Timimi told The Associated Press that artillery and mortar strikes hit the Aden, Tahrir and Quds districts from the Gogjali and Karma neighborhoods that special forces seized Thursday.

Iraqi forces are being supported by Kurdish troops and a U.S.-led coalition, which is providing airstrikes.

The assault on the urban areas, where the bulk of the city's remaining one million residents live, could take weeks, if not months.

The grim stakes in the battle for Mosul were underscored Friday by a report from the U.N. human rights office in Geneva detailing large-scale deportations of residents.

Spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani says the office received reports the Islamic State forcibly transferred 1,600 civilians to other locations in the area apparently to be used as human shields against airstrikes, and some civilians were told they may be taken to Syria. The militants took 150 families from Hammam al-Alil to Mosul on Wednesday, according to the reports.

Militants also told residents of Hammam al-Alil that they must hand over children, especially boys above the age of 9, in an apparent recruitment drive for child soldiers, Shamdasani said.

Islamic State militants were holding nearly 400 Kurdish, Yazidi and Shia women in Tal Afar, and had possibly killed up to 200 people in Mosul, she said.

The human rights official also noted reports of mass killings, including an incident Monday when the Islamic State allegedly killed 50 of its own militants in the Ghazlani military base in Mosul for desertion.