Nearly 10,000 'exhausted' children displaced by Mosul operation

Many of the children who fled the city arrived at emergency camps exhausted, UNICEF said, some even barefooted and covered in dust.

The children are in urgent need of assistance, warned the agency, which promotes the rights and well-being of children.

"As the situation continues to unfold, it is important that we remain nimble and that we adapt our response to best assist children and families who have been through so much over these past years," said Pernille Ironside, UNICEF'S chief of field operations in Iraq.

"I met mothers and children who were so relieved to have come out alive; it was clear that they had gone through so much," Ironside said, after a visit to Nargizlia site, where displaced Iraqis are screened before being placed in emergency camps.

Families spend up to half a day in the screening process, where children are examined for malnutrition and treated accordingly, UNICEF said.

Many of the children who fled the city arrived at emergency camps exhausted, some even barefooted and covered in dust

While thousands have fled the city, many remain trapped inside.

Up to 600,000 children are among the civilians besieged in IS-held Mosul, Save the Children said on Tuesday, calling for safe corridors as Iraqi forces advance on the city.

"It is a critical moment to protect children and open safe routes to allow the 1.5 million civilians, including about 600,000 children, still trapped in the city to leave safely," the charity said.

"We cannot sit back and wait for another situation like Aleppo to unfold, whilst there is still the opportunity to get children out of the war zone," the NGO's Iraq director Maurizio Crivellaro said.

An estimated 250,000 people have been besieged by regime forces in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo for three months.

Most estimates put the number of people trapped in Mosul at more than a million, but accurate numbers are impossible to come by after more than two years of militant rule in the city.