The number of people fleeing the western Mosul has reached nearly 100,000, Iraqi Minister of Displacement and Migration Jassim Mohammed Al-Jaaf said Sunday as the operation to recapture the city’s western areas from Daesh terrorists continued.

Axar.az reports that the Iraqi Ministry of Displacement and Migration received 10,607 refugees in the last 24 hours, placing them in camps south of Mosul and in neighboring areas in northern Iraq, Al-Jaaf said as quoted in the ministry’s statement.

He added that the ministry’s team worked 24 hours a day to receive and host the families fleeing the areas where the fighting was still ongoing and to provide them with necessary assistance.

The operation to recapture Mosul, the key stronghold of Daesh in Iraq, began in October 2016 and resulted in the liberation of Mosul’s eastern part this January, but fighting continues in the city's western areas.