Iraqi soldiers fighting just north of Mosul, within sight of city neighborhoods, said on Sunday that they were ready to tighten the noose around Islamic State militants waging a brutal defense of their Iraqi stronghold.
Four weeks into the campaign to crush Islamic State in Mosul, the city is almost surrounded but the Islamic State's defenses have so far been breached only to the east, where they have battled elite troops for control of around a dozen districts.
The battle for Mosul, the biggest city held by the Islamist group in Iraq and Syria, is the largest military operation in Iraq in a decade of turmoil unleashed by the 2003 U.S. invasion which toppled Saddam Hussein.
But it says the fight will be a long one.
An army special forces officer on the northern front line said that his men aimed to target Hadba, the first neighborhood ahead of them within city limits. The district was visible from his position in the village of Bawiza.
Brigadier Ali Abdulla said Islamic State fighters had been pushed out of Bawiza and another village, Saada, although progress had been slowed by the presence of civilians he said were being used by the militants as human shields.
"Our approach (to Hadba) will be very slow and cautious so that we can reach the families and free them from Daesh's (Islamic State's) grip," Abdulla said.
One man who escaped from Saada to Bawiza with his young son and daughter said they had to move from house to house and hide among sheep to avoid being caught by Islamic State fighters.
The timing of the decision to move on Hadba would depend on progress on other fronts, Abdulla said. Security forces are advancing to the south of Mosul, targeting the city's airport on the west bank of the Tigris river.