A German charity has sent several hundred pallets of baby food to Erbil in Iraq where children in refugee camps, displaced by fighting in nearby Mosul, are suffering from malnutrition.
In Germany to see off the shipment on Friday was Erbil's mayor, Nihad Latif Qoja, who fled Iraq for Germany 36 years ago before returning to become Erbil's mayor in 2004.
"The western part of Mosul is totally destroyed because of the fighting, including a lot of hospitals, schools and infrastructure. A lot of children and elderly people are suffering because of that", Qoja told Reuters.
The nine-month military campaign to oust Islamic State militants from Iraq's second city has resulted in the displacement of almost 1 million people, according to the United Nations' Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Iraqi forces faced further pockets of resistance from Islamic State militants in Mosul's Old City on Friday, four days after the prime minister declared victory in the city.