BAGHDAD (Dispatches) – The UN has warned that children are bearing the brunt of the intensified fighting between government forces and the Daesh terrorist group in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. 
Peter Hawkins, representative of the United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Iraq, estimated on Monday that 100,000 girls and boys were still living under extremely dangerous conditions in the Daesh-held Old City neighborhood and other areas.
The UN agency is receiving "alarming reports" of civilians being killed, including children, in the city's western half, he added.
The UNICEF representative didn't give a specific number of children killed in the crossfire.
The official called on the warring sides to "protect the children and keep them out of harm's way at all times, in line with their obligations under humanitarian law."
"Children's lives are on the line. Children are being killed, injured and used as human shields. Children are experiencing and witnessing terrible violence that no human being should ever witness," Hawkins said in a statement read.
"In some cases, they have been forced to participate in the fighting and violence," he added.
Meanwhile, Iraqi fighters from the Popular Mobilization Units have managed to regain control over nine villages west of Mosul as they engage in joint military operations with army troops to purge Takfiri terrorists out of their last urban bastion in the Arab country.
The media bureau of Iraq's Badr Organization announced in a statement that the pro-government forces, commonly known by the Arabic name Hashd al-Sha’abi, had establish full control over the villages of Be’r al-Osaibei, Aliyah and Sharji al-Rawi northwest of the mainly Shia-populated town of al-Ba'aj.
The statement added that Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters had also recaptured the villages of Hamd al-Madloul, Marzoukah, Touman, Raqbah al-Fores, Khirbet al-Arizah and Tale’ah al-Markab.
The Iraqi forces took control of eastern Mosul in January after 100 days of fighting, and launched the battle in the west on February 19.
Jens Laerka, the spokesperson of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said on May 30 that nearly 600,000 civilians have been displaced amid the operation by Iraq's military and volunteer fighters to drive Daesh terrorists out of western Mosul.
He added that there are still major humanitarian concerns regarding the protection of 180,000 people, who are still besieged inside Mosul’s Old City and other districts north of the city.