Mosul offensive going faster than expected, Iraqi Prime Minister says

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Thursday that the offensive against Daesh in Mosul was progressing more quickly than originally planned.

"The forces are pushing towards the town more quickly than we thought and more quickly than we had programmed in our campaign plan," Abadi told senior officials in Paris via a video conference call.

His comments came as Kurdish fighters launched a large-scale operation east and north of Mosul, which has been in the hands of Daesh since 2014 and is the militants' last major Iraqi stronghold.

The offensive to retake the city began on Monday. The Iraqi army has been moving from the south, and special forces have now joined the offensive.

Up to 1.5 million civilians are thought to still be inside the city.

French President Francois Hollande, who was opening a meeting in Paris to discuss the future of Mosul, said that there was evidence that Islamic State fighters were already fleeing to its Syrian bastion of Raqqa, and that everything needed to be done to stop them regrouping there.