Iraqi forces battling Islamic State have fought their way close to Mosul's airport on the second day of a ground offensive targeting the extremist group's remaining stronghold in the west of the city.

Militants were removed from the hilltop village of Albu Saif, which overlooks the airport, an Iraqi military statement said.

Federal police and elite interior ministry units known as Rapid Response are closing in on the airport, on the southern outskirts of Mosul, and plan to use it as a close support base as they push further into the west of the city.

Earlier on Monday, helicopters strafed the hilltop village, backed by machine gun fire and rocket propelled grenades, to clear out snipers.

It comes after IS claimed a British suicide bomber detonated a vehicle full of explosives near the city.


The group named the bomber as Abu Zakariya al-Britani and claimed the vehicle had exploded in Tal Kisum village, south of Mosul, in a statement reported by the SITE Intelligence Group.

Video: Iraqi helicopters and ground forces fight for Mosul

Forces from the Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation), a paramilitary umbrella dominated by Shia militias backed by Tehran, are active in the area mentioned in the statement.

They are fighting alongside other Iraqi forces, including the army and the federal police, as part of a push that started on Sunday to retake the west bank of Mosul.

Tens of thousands of Iraqi forces launched a massive offensive on 17 October to retake the city, which is Iraq's second largest and the only remaining major stronghold of the jihadists in the country.

They retook control of the eastern side of Mosul last month but a senior US intelligence official said on Monday that an estimated 2,000 IS fighters remain in west Mosul.

The latest estimate was announced as new US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis began an unannounced tour of the region.

IS fighters of a variety of nationalities, including Britons, have carried out numerous suicide attacks in Iraq and Syria in the past three years.

The west of Mosul contains the old city centre - including ancient souks - and the mosque from which IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared his self-styled caliphate across Iraq and Syria in 2014.