Iraq's displaced said yesterday that they had been stranded for days at Bartella, east of the Islamic State-held city of Mosul, waiting to be screened by the Iraqi security forces before being transported to refugee camps on the outskirts of the Kurdish city of Erbil.

Men, women and children said they fled the recently recaptured areas of eastern Mosul to escape bombardment, as Islamic State fighters stepped up counter attacks on Iraqi forces in Mosul.

With cloudy skies hampering coalition air surveillance, the militants have carried out attacks in three districts of eastern Mosul over the past four days.

At Bartella, the men handed over their identification cards so their names could be checked against a database of wanted Islamic State members, part of the painstaking process of clearing jihadists from each neighbourhood of their Mosul stronghold.

Meanwhile, women and their children took shelter in abandoned shops as they waited for the men to complete the screening.

Every time Iraqi forces capture a section of Mosul in their offensive against Islamic State, it can take up to a week to ensure it is clear of militants.

Some hide in the network of tunnels they have constructed, while others mix with thousands of displaced people or stay behind to form sleeper cells in the crowded neighbourhoods of Mosul, a city of more than one million people.

The humanitarian situation of the besieged population is causing alarm amid reports of food, water and fuel shortages, while the fighting is making access to hospitals difficult.

Nearly 100,000 people have fled the city, according to the International Organization for Migration.