Scenes of panic as hundreds of Iraqis flee Mosul

[...] large was the crowd on the road that Iraqi troops initially ordered them back, worried that an Islamic State suicide bomber could be hiding among them.

Mosul’s residents are fleeing in growing numbers as Iraqi forces push deeper into the country’s second-largest city, and the battle-hardened extremists are fighting for every block, exploiting the dense urban terrain and using civilians as human shields.

The troops ordered them to halt, saying they had intelligence that Islamic State might send suicide bombers disguised as civilians.

The Iraqi military does not release official casualty figures, but field medics say dozens of troops have been killed and wounded since the Mosul operation began last month.

Elsewhere in Iraq, more than a dozen small-scale attacks in and around Baghdad killed at least 31 people and wounded 103, according to police and health officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.