Kurdish forces are preparing to launch a fresh push to recapture Mosul from Islamic State.

The Peshmerga took 80 square miles of territory from Islamic State during the first day of the huge military operation, according to the president of Iraq's Kurdish region.

Reporting from near Mosul, Sky News Foreign Affairs Editor Sam Kiley said they now plan "to push forward over the next 24 hours".

Sky man with Peshmerga special forces near Mosul

He said: "They will be joined in that battle by soldiers, tanks and very heavy armour that is not available to the Kurds, but is available to the Iraqi government."

He added that Iraqi government forces will lead the attack as the Peshmerga get closer to Mosul.


:: Islamic State video: Life in Mosul is 'safe and normal'

Some 2,000 Iraqi special forces are being supported by four brigades of the regular Iraqi Army, 15,000 Sunni militia, 15,000 Kurdish Peshmerga and a few thousand Shia militia.

Backed by air and ground support from a US-led coalition, they are taking the fight to an estimated 3,000 IS fighters in the country's second largest city.

The Pentagon said the operation had started well but warned it would be a "difficult campaign that could take some time."

Image: Iraqi security forces advance in Qayara, south of Mosul, to attack Islamic State militants Image: An Iraqi force of around 30,000 is leading the offensive to take back Mosul - Islamic State's last major stronghold in the country Image: Peshmerga fighters take on IS fighters near Mosul, in what is expected to be a long and difficult assault on the large northern Iraq city Image: A woman walks with children at a Syrian refugee camp housing Iraqi families who fled fighting in the Mosul area. Continue through for more pictures /

Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said: "Early indications are that Iraqi forces have met their objectives so far, and that they are ahead of schedule for this first day."

The advance of Iraqi and Kurdish forces was slowed by suicide bombers, roadside IEDs and oil fires.

Sky News Chief Correspondent Stuart Ramsay, who is embedded with the Kurdish fighters, said they were searching through outlying villages for IS fighters.

He said: "They are literally going street-by-street trying to clear out any of the Islamic State if they are in here.

"They are not sure who is here - but they are being fired back at."

Strategic target: Planning the taking of Mosul

He also witnessed a coalition airstrike destroy a suspected suicide bomber in a truck who had been approaching the Kurdish forces.

An IS-run media outlet claimed the group had launched a series of deadly suicide attacks on the advance, destroying at least two Humvees.

Retreating fighters burned oil and tyres to send thick black smoke into the air in a bid to hide their positions from aircraft flying overhead.

Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, commander of the US-led coalition, said the operation to re-take the city "will likely continue for weeks, possibly longer".

US Secretary of Defence Ash Carter claimed the battle was "a decisive moment in the campaign to deliver IS a lasting defeat".

IS positions 'softened up' by Peshmerga artillery

Meanwhile, the UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Iraq has warned the operation may overwhelm emergency services as around 700,000 civilians could need shelter.

Lise Grande said: "Our capacity to support 700,000 people in the short-term - we couldn't do it.

"And certainly if we had to mount a response over the intermediate-term, if they couldn't go back to Mosul quickly, if there was too much damage in the city, then it would test us to breaking point."

Mosul is the last city in Iraq held by IS.

It was overrun in 2014 in what was described as a "total collapse" of government security forces, causing thousands of families to flee to Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region in the north.

Image: Smoke billows as Iraqi forces deploy in the area of al Shurah

During a visit to the city, IS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi declared an Islamic caliphate which at one point covered nearly a third of Iraq and Syria.

Using Mosul as a base, the jihadi group swept further south through Iraq's towns and cities.