Iraqi special forces neared the eastern city limits of Mosul on Monday (October 31st), tightening the noose as the offensive to retake the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL) stronghold entered its third week.

Forces from the elite Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) faced mortar fire as they pushed from the Christian town of Bartella towards Mosul's eastern suburbs, AFP reported.

As an aircraft struck a suspected ISIL mortar position in the distance, a convoy of Humvees sprayed gunfire across the arid plain at an industrial area held by the extremists.

Lt. Col. Muntadhar al-Shimmari said CTS had recaptured Bazwaya, one of two ISIL-held villages that had been standing between Iraqi forces and the eastern edges of Mosul.

"Tonight, if everything is secured, we will be 700 metres from Mosul," al-Shimmari said.

CTS forces had entered the second village, Gogjali, and were battling to retake it, Staff Lt. Gen. Abdelwahab al-Saadi, a senior CTS commander, told AFP by telephone.

He denied reports that Iraqi forces had entered the Al-Karama area -- about 2.5 kilometres from Gogjali -- inside Mosul itself.

Backed by air and ground support from the international coalition, tens of thousands of Iraqi fighters are converging on Mosul on different fronts, in the country's biggest military operation in years.

On the northern and eastern sides of Mosul, peshmerga forces recently took several villages and consolidated their positions.

To the south of the city, federal forces, backed by coalition artillery units stationed in the main staging base of al-Qayyarah, have been pushing north.

They have the most ground to cover and are still some distance from the southern limits of Mosul.

Once the initial phase is over, Iraqi forces are expected to besiege Mosul, attempt to open safe corridors for the million-plus civilians still believed to live there, and breach the city to take on ISIL gunmen in street battles.

Humanitarian organisations have been fighting against the clock to build up the capacity to handle an expected exodus from the city.

The UN says up to a million people could be displaced in the coming weeks.

More than 17,000 people have already fled their homes since the start of the operation and the Norwegian Refugee Council said there were currently only 55,000 more places available in camps.

Post-'caliphate' life

In the dozens of villages and towns scattered over territory retaken from ISIL over the past two weeks, civilians were very slowly returning to a life free from the "caliphate" ISIL declared in Mosul in 2014.

Qaraqosh, which was previously Iraq's largest Christian city, saw its first mass in more than two years on Sunday.

The bell tower was damaged, statues decapitated and missals strewn across the nave floor, which is still covered in soot from the fire ISIL fighters lit when they retreated.

But some of the crosses have already been replaced and a new icon was laid on the main altar.

"After two years and three months in exile, I just celebrated the Eucharist in the cathedral of the Immaculate Conception [ISIL] wanted to destroy," Yohanna Petros Mouche, the Syriac Catholic Archbishop of Mosul, said.

Most retaken areas were far from being habitable however, with months of mine clearing and reconstruction needed before the bulk of the original population can return.

Foiled attack on Ramadi

Iraqi officials said Saturday that the security forces foiled an attack by ISIL on the city of Ramadi, capital of the western province of Anbar.

The reported thwarted attack led to 11 arrests and comes after a string of diversionary attacks by ISIL since the start of the Mosul offensive.

Iraqi forces "arrested 11 ISIL members who were planning to attack the city in a deserted building with weapons, explosives, ammunition and explosive vests in their possession", Anbar police chief Maj. Gen. Hadi Kassar Erzaij told Diyaruna.

"Three policemen were injured during the arrest after a terrorist opened fire on the storming force," he said.

The 11 arrested "are all Iraqis and belong to ISIL", he said, noting that they were taken to a temporary security detention facility.

On October 21st, sleeper cells joined up with militants who infiltrated Kurdish-controlled Kirkuk, sparking deadly clashes with security forces that lasted three days.

Since the start of the offensive on Mosul, ISIL fighters have also launched attacks on al-Rutbah in western Anbar which government forces retook earlier this year, and in the northern Sinjar region.