"Don't stop!" the Iraqi special forces lieutenant yelled as a wave of fleeing civilians trudged past his position in Mosul's Old City in the scorching heat.

Tensions have escalated in the final days of the battle for Mosul, as suicide bombings carried out mostly by women hiding among groups of civilians target Iraqi forces closing in on the last few hundred square meters of territory Daesh controls.

Many civilians are believed still trapped in the Daesh-run enclave, with around 1,500 fleeing with every 100-meter advance by Iraqi forces.

Iraqi soldiers increasingly accuse civilians still inside the Old City of being relatives of Daesh fighters.

Lt. Gen. Abdel-Ghani al-Asadi, a senior special forces commander, defended the screening procedures.

He described the Daesh suicide bombings as "barbaric" and maintained that searching and questioning civilians is essential to protecting his forces and preventing Daesh fighters from escaping Mosul.

As civilians continued to flee Wednesday, one woman rushed up to Haddad and a group of soldiers standing outside a Humvee with three young men inside.

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