Iraqi forces have recaptured nearly 90% of west Mosul from the "Islamic State Of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) and extremists in the city are on the "brink of total defeat", military spokesmen said Tuesday (May 16th).

Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasul, spokesman for Iraq's Joint Operations Command, told a news conference in Baghdad that ISIS now controls just over 10% of west Mosul, AFP reported.

Col. John Dorrian, the spokesman for the international coalition, said that the end was near for jihadists in the city.

"The enemy is completely surrounded," Dorrian told the news conference. "The enemy is on the brink of total defeat in Mosul."

The drive to retake Mosul has been supported by a campaign of coalition airstrikes in and around the city.

"More than 300 vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices have been destroyed by coalition strikes in Mosul," Dorrian said.

"Our strikes have also destroyed more than 200 ISIS tunnels and more than 1,000 of their fighting positions," he said.

The group now controls just a handful of neighbourhoods around the Old City.

Half a million people are currently displaced as a result of the battle for Mosul, and some 250,000 civilians are estimated to still be trapped inside the city's west.

The number of those fleeing has been on the rise, with Thursday seeing around 20,000 people fleeing west Mosul, the Norwegian Refugee Council said, in the biggest single-day displacement since the start of the operation.