During a visit to Hungary today, Iraq's foreign minister has said that progress in liberating the northern city of Mosul has been slowed by the Islamic State group's use of civilians as human shields.
Ibrahim Al-Jaafari, who is in Hungary to sign a double taxation agreement with Peter Szijjártó, minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said that 1,700 IS fighters have been killed and 120 captured in the battle for Mosul so far.
He says one third of the Ninevah province, where Mosul is the capital, has been freed from IS, according to AP.
Al-Jaafari says 62,000 refugees have left the city — much fewer than was expected by authorities — and that Iraq is "prepared to receive many more."
He also said Iraq needed to increase its crude oil output, which he said provided 90 percent of state budget revenues, and be exempt from OPEC output quotas because of its "extraordinary situation."