Smiling Iraqi girl thanks soldiers for liberating her village from the clutches of barbaric ISIS militants
Amid the heat of battle in the Iraqi desert news crews captured the touching rescue of a 10-year-old girl and her mother from the collapsing Islamic State.
In a video that captures the perseverance of the human spirit a dishevelled and dehydrated girl known as Aysha tells her liberators she would "like to kiss your feet".
She stood with a smile on her face to thank the Iraqi army troops that liberated her village from the barbaric regime.
"I'm so thankful to you. I thought you would never come for us," the spirited child told the news cameras on Thursday.
Aysha's village of Kafer lies 30 kilometres outside Mosul. With the assault on the northern city in full swing, residents endured three days of air strikes and ground battles before salvation arrived.
Having fallen under the oppressive boots of ISIS militants in 2014, it was a liberation greeted with smiles and open arms.
"We have had no food or water for three days and it was just me and my mother, my father was taken and killed by the terrorists," she added, a throng of celebrating Iraqi soldiers gathered around her.
"The IS men have taken away so many children from my village and we don't know what happened to them. Some of them died.
"The men made my mother give them her money and jewels and we have had nothing. Thank you, thank you.
"I would like to kiss your feet."
Aysha and her mother were taken to the nearby village of Qayyarah as Iraqi and Kurdish fighters continued their advance on the final Islamic State bastion in Iraq.
IS driven from Christian region near Mosul
Iraqi army troops have stormed into a Christian region that has been under Islamic State control since 2014 as part of US-backed operations to clear the entrances to Mosul, the militants' last major city stronghold in Iraq.
The advance took place as US Defence Secretary Ash Carter met Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in Baghdad to evaluate the campaign that began on Monday with air and ground support from the US-led coalition.
A military statement on Saturday said Iraqi units entered the centre of Qaraqosh, a mainly Christian town about 20km southeast of Mosul, and were carrying out mop-up operations across the town.
Further action was under way to seize a neighbouring Christian village, Karamless. The region's population fled in the summer of 2014, when Islamic State swept in.
Earlier this week, Iraqi special units also captured Bartella, a Christian village north of Qaraqosh.
A US military official estimated there were fewer than a couple of hundred Islamic State fighters in Qaraqosh.
"I've seen berms in Qaraqosh. I anticipate there'll be trenches, there'll be passageways between different buildings," he added, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Some 1.5 million residents remain in Mosul and worst-case scenario forecasts see up to a million being uprooted, according to the United Nations.
The army is trying to advance from the south and the east while Kurdish Peshmerga fighters are holding fronts in the east and north.
On the southern front, nearly 1000 people were treated for breathing problems linked to toxic fumes from a sulphur plant that Islamic State militants are suspected to have set on fire on Thursday, said sources at the hospital of Qayyara.
The Iraqi army's media office said about 50 villages had been taken from the militants since Monday in operations to prepare the main thrust into Mosul itself, where 5000 to 6000 IS fighters are dug in, according to Iraqi estimates.
Islamic State is relying mainly on suicide car bombs, roadside bombs, mines, sniper and mortar fire to counter the charge of the Iraqi units trained by the US to deal specifically with this kind of warfare.
"The campaign is proceeding according to plan and the schedule that we've had," Carter said after meeting Abadi. The Iraqi prime minister, however, rejected any Turkish participation in the campaign.
Carter signalled during a visit to Ankara on Friday his support for a possible Turkish role and said there was an agreement in principle between Baghdad and Ankara -- potentially ending a source of tension.
"I know that the Turks want to participate, we tell them thank you, this is something the Iraqis will handle," Abadi said.
The militants retaliated to the advance of the Iraqi forces and the Kurdish fighters in Mosul on Friday by attacking Kirkuk, an oil city that lies east Hawija, a pocket they continue to control between Baghdad and Mosul.
Authorities in Kirkuk regained control of the city on Saturday.
At least 50 people have been killed and 80 others wounded in clashes between security forces and the militants in Kirkuk, according to a hospital sources.
