Days after the Iraqi government officially declared victory over the Islamic State in Mosul in July, the fighting was far from over.

Roughly the size of a block in Manhattan, the last ISIS holdout of the Old City did not seem like the kind of place where anyone could still be alive after weeks of brutal combat. But a few such areas kept up the fight for days. And — horribly, amazingly — civilians were still being pulled out.

What we saw as we went step by step with the Iraqi forces here made their survival seem even more miraculous.

At a forward base near the front line, Iraqi special forces soldiers brought in a man who had crossed the front line, holding a young boy no more than 2.