For more on what will happen to these displaced Iraqi civilians, we earlier talked to a political analyst from the US.

"Because to be honest, I don't think there really is a clear answer. The Iraqi forces have opened up a channel to let the civilians in Mosul leave with the hope that they will leave, and make it easier to target ISIL. But where do they go? Do they go to other ISIL-controlled territory. If it's not there, it's not a really obvious pathway, and that's been part of their playbooks from Day one. They have always used civilians as human shields. And unfortunately we have to expect that they will continue to do so in Mosul and anywhere else where they are fighting a battle," said Jonah Blank, senior political scientist of Rand Corporation.