Forces try to weed out IS in Mosul

An Iraqi officer shuffled through identity cards as he sat at a battered desk by the side of the dust-blown highway heading east from the city of Mosul.

Six men in dirt-spattered tracksuits huddled nearby, waiting on a concrete slab, part of the latest convoy of civilians to flee fighting as government forces try to oust Islamic State jihadists from the city.

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Clutching a phone to his ear, the officer stood up and read out the men's names one by one, waiting a second to receive a word from the person on the other end. He then handed them back their identity cards and let them go.