Iraqi security forces ride in vehicles travelling to Mosul to fight against militants of Islamic State at an Iraqi army base in Camp Taji in Baghdad, February 21, 2016. (Photo by Ahmed Saad/Reuters)

An Iraqi soldier drives MRAP at his base in Makhmour, after it was freed from control of Islamic State, south of Mosul, April 17, 2016. (Photo by Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters)

Iraqi army soldiers fire mortars against the Islamic State militants, at Shahrazad village 2 miles (3 kilometers) east of Mosul, Iraq, Monday, November 14, 2016. A suicide bombing in Iraq targeted the Shiite sacred city of Karbala on Monday, killing at least six civilians, the latest attempt by the Islamic State group to distract from the government forces' offensive on the IS-held northern city of Mosul. (Photo by Hussein Malla/AP Photo)

Kayaks, 7, poses for a picture holding toy gun in a camp where Christians displaced by Islamic State militants are living, in Irbil, Iraq, Friday, December 23, 2016. Iraq’s Christians are marking the holiday in his camp for displaced people with a sense of worry and despair, unable to return to their towns they were forced to flee two years ago by the Islamic State group’s onslaught. (Photo by Manu Brabo/AP Photo)

A woman spends her time outdoors to observe the ancient festival of Sizdeh Bedar, an annual public picnic day on the 13th day of the Iranian new year, at the Tochal mountainous area northern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, April, 2, 2017. Sizdeh Bedar, which comes from the Farsi words for “thirteen” and “day out”, is a legacy from Iran's pre-Islamic past that hard-liners in the Islamic Republic never managed to erase from calendars. (Photo by Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Photo)

Shi'ite fighters launch a rocket during clashes with Islamic State militants on the outskirts of al-Alam March 8, 2015. Thaier Al-Sudani: “It was me and a few other Iraqi journalists working for local outlets. We went to the frontlines in coordination with the Iraqi government forces and supporting militias. The press officer would come in the morning and take us to the frontline in a convoy. Whenever an area was won from Islamic State, the fighters would chant and pray and show victory signs. Most of the areas we were in didn't have residents, so after the battle they would resemble ghost towns; nothing but burnt cars and charred bodies of Islamic State fighters. Al-Alam was an exception as it had some residents who chanted for the government forces after their victory”. (Photo by Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters)

Iraqi pro-government forces fire an anti-tank cannon near al-Sejar village, north-east of Fallujah, on May 25, 2016, as they take part in a major assault to retake the city from the Islamic State (IS) group. Iraqi forces, consisting of special forces, soldiers, police, paramilitary-fighters and pro-government tribesmen, launched a major assault to retake Fallujah, the scene of deadly battles during the US occupation and one of the toughest targets yet in Baghdad's war on the Islamic State group. (Photo by Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP Photo)

A Shiite fighter from the Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation) patrols in the village of Ayn Nasir, south of Mosul, on October 29, 2016, after recapturing it from Islamic State group jihadists in an ongoing operation to retake the city of Mosul. Iraqi paramilitary forces launched an operation to cut the Islamic State group's supply lines between its Mosul bastion and neighbouring Syria, opening a new front in the nearly two-week-old offensive. (Photo by Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP Photo)