We have information that ISIS leader Baghdadi is alive: Kurdish official

The official said that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was alive and located in southern Syria in the city of Raqqa.

Iraqi forces combat ISIS days after PM al-Abadi declares victory over Mosul

Army choppers strafed the Old City and blasts sent plumes of smoke into the air, though it was unclear if they were bombs.

The battle has left large parts of Mosul in ruins, killed thousands of civilians and displaced nearly 1 million people.

Iraq's Federal Police said it had made a new push against the ISIS holed up in the Old City.

Various members of the forces, Iraqi and foreign, battling the jihadists have disagreed in the past on control of territory figures.

After recapturing east Mosul, Iraqi forces last month set their sites on the west, where hundreds of thousands of civilians remain trapped.

Iraqi intelligence officials estimate dozens of IS fighters and sympathizers remain in hiding in eastern Mosul.

Iraqi forces hope to repair the airport and use it as a base from which to drive the militants from Mosul's western districts.

The market has become a place not just to shop, but to work and to talk to savour the newfound freedom of life.

There are still weeks if not months of fighting ahead in the battle to recapture the last IS-held Iraqi city.