About 12,000 Iraqis have fled their homes since the October 17th start of an offensive to retake Mosul from the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL), the Ministry of Migration and Displacement said Thursday (October 27th).

"The number of internally displaced people has reached 11,735 from the Ninawa villages that are being liberated from ISIL," the ministry said in a statement.

The displaced are being transferred to IDP camps in Erbil, Dohuk and Salaheddine where they are being provided with urgent assistance and various supplies, the statement said.

Iraqi troops on Thursday liberated three more villages on the outskirts of Mosul, according to the Ninawa Operations Command.

"The army has retaken al-Zawya and Telkhana, and is now just three kilometres away from Mosul," Ninawa operations commander Nejim Edin Karim al-Jubury told Diyaruna.

"Meanwhile, Peshmerga forces have retaken al-Fadhiliya village, east of Mosul," he said.

"International coalition fighter jets continue to pave the way and overcome obstacles for our ground forces," he said. "We are now consolidating our positions in the areas that we have already retaken."

More than 800 ISIL gunmen have been killed since the start of the Mosul offensive, al-Jubury said.