World Bulletin / News Desk

 Hundreds of Iraqi civilians were evacuated from western Mosul amid an ongoing military operation to capture the last ISIL stronghold in the northern city, according to a relief official. 

“Iraqi forces have evacuated 1,200 civilians from western Mosul in the past 24 hours,” Eyad Rafed of the Iraqi Red Crescent Society told Anadolu Agency. 

He said the evacuees have been transferred to refugee camps in eastern Mosul. 

Last week, the Iraqi army launched a major operation to capture western Mosul, ISIL’s last stronghold in the northern city.  

The UN estimates that around 250,000 civilians will be displaced from Mosul’s western side due to the anti-ISIL offensive. 

On Friday, Iraqi forces reportedly captured the Mosul airport, which Baghdad seeks to convert into a close-support base for their ongoing anti-ISIL offensive in western Mosul.  

The Iraqi forces also wrestled control of the Al-Ghazlani Camp, considered ISIL’s largest military camp in Mosul, which the terrorist group overran -- along vast swathes of territory in northern and western Iraq -- in 2014.