The Latest: Iraqi forces shell IS positions near Mosul

FILE — In this Saturday, Oct. 22, 2016 file photo, Iraqi troops guard a checkpoint near the village of Awsaja, Iraq, as smoke from fires lit by Islamic State militants at oil wells and a sulfur plant fills the air. In the week since Iraq launched an operation to retake Mosul from the Islamic State group, its forces have pushed toward the city from the north, east and south, battling the militants in a belt of mostly uninhabited towns and villages. In the heavily mined approaches to the city they met with fierce resistance, as IS unleashed suicide truck bombs, rockets and mortars. (AP Photo/Adam Schreck, File)

BAGHDAD (AP) — The Latest on developments in Iraq as the battle for Mosul enters its second week (all times local):

9:10 a.m.

Iraqi special forces have begun shelling Islamic State positions near Mosul in the latest phase of a massive operation to retake the militant-held city.

Maj. Gen. Haider al-Obeidi says the shelling began early on Monday northwest of Bartella, a historically Christian town 15 kilometers (9 miles) to the east of Mosul. Iraqi special forces retook Bartella last week.

The campaign to retake Mosul comes after months of planning and involves more than 25,000 Iraqi troops, Kurdish forces, Sunni tribal fighters and state-sanctioned Shiite militias. It is expected to take weeks, if not months, to drive IS out of Iraq’s second largest city, which is still home to more than a million people.

___

8:55 a.m.

A rights group is urging a probe into a suspected airstrike in northern Iraq that killed at least 13 during last week’s battles for Mosul.

Human Rights Watch said on Monday that the explosion struck the women’s section of a Shiite mosque in the town of Daquq and appeared to have been caused by an airstrike.

Residents believe it was an airstrike because of the extent of the destruction and because planes were heard flying overhead. It happened on Friday amid a large Islamic State assault on the nearby city of Kirkuk.

The U.S.-led coalition battling IS and the Iraqi air force are the only parties known to be flying aircraft over the country. Both are engaged in the massive operation to take the Islamic State-held city of Mosul.