After enduring two years of tyranny under the Islamic State group and surviving the war that liberated them, displaced civilians in northern Iraq face a new enemy: the cold.

With the fighting raging inside Mosul where hundreds of thousands of civilians still live, an early winter and sub-zero temperatures have brought an added challenge.

"At night we have to keep our heads under the blanket and curl into a ball to stay warm," said Alya Zannun, a 56-year-old woman living in a tent in Khazir camp, southeast of Mosul.

"We are dying from the cold, our hands are getting dry and are covered in fungi," she said, washing a few dishes with ice-cold water.

Warda Maraebi, a 71-year-old woman helping her with the dishes, said: "We can't even stretch our fingers because of the cold, how are the children going to handle this?"

More than 70,000 people have been displaced in the Mosul area since Iraqi forces launched a major offensive to retake the IS bastion on October 17.

Despite the fact that larger numbers were initially expected, aid organisations have been racing against time to build enough camps and provide basic assistance.

Fatima Omar, 38, fled her home east of Mosul earlier this month with her six children.

"At night, the tent was shaking, it felt like the wind was going to blow it away," she said. "If the weather gets any worse, the tent will just collapse."

Some of the displaced now housed in the camps dotting the Mosul region were battling temperatures of over 40 degrees Celsius (100 Fahrenheit) just a few weeks ago.

Northern Iraq gets cold weather in the winter however and even snowfall in some areas, including regions of the Kurdish region housing many of the country's more than three million displaced.

Fatima was given a heater but the device was still in its box inside her tent because she had no kerosene to make it work.

"Yes they gave us a heater but it's never been used. No fuel, no electricity. What are we supposed to do with it?" she said.

She said her youngest child was suffering from diarrhoea and also expressed concern about the health of her 71-year-old cousin Mariam Safar.

- 'I will die' -

On the other side of the wire mesh ringing the sprawling camp, vendors selling food to the displaced people above the fence are now also offering clothes.

Bushra Talal, whose husband was killed by the jihadists in their Mosul neighbourhood of Al-Samah two years ago, broke into tears when she spoke about the conditions in the camp.

She said her daughters, aged 13, 10 and eight called at night complaining about the cold.

"We are suffering from the cold, my daughters are getting sick... The water is so cold I can't let them have a bath," said the woman, wearing a black abaya and yellow head scarf.

"I went to the person in charge of the camp and asked him to let us leave. I don't want my children to die of exposure," said the young woman.

The United Nations said it started delivering winter assistance to 4.6 million displaced Iraqis and Syrians but it said its plan was only partially funded.

The UN's refugee agency said it was specifically targeting 1.2 million displaced Iraqis, including many of those affected by the Mosul offensive.

UNHCR spokeswoman Caroline Gluck said a distribution took place last week in its Hasansham camp, which neighbours the government-built Khazir camp where Bushra Talal lives.

The organisation handed out "warm blankets, heaters, insulating kits, including floor mats and an additional insulating layer for the tent, and plastic sheets to help get them through the harsh winter months," she said.

Different camps get different quality aid and, with winter barely started, many displaced families are suffering already.

"When the rain comes, I will die," said Mariam Safar.

Iraq forces must open safe routes for Mosul residents: NGO
Arbil, Iraq (AFP) Nov 25, 2016 - Iraqi forces should create safe exits for Mosul residents because they cannot protect civilians and wage fierce battles with jihadists at the same time, an aid group said on Friday.

The International Rescue Committee also predicted that the fighting to retake the Islamic State group's northern stronghold would last until the spring of 2017 and worried that the trapped population would run out of supplies or take huge risks to flee.

"Even with the best efforts of the Iraqi forces to keep residents out of harm's way, the fighting is just too intense," IRC's Iraq director Alex Milutinovic said.

Around 70,000 people have fled their homes in the region since the start on October 17 of a huge offensive against Mosul, only about 30,000 of them from inside the city itself.

The number of displaced is significantly lower than what the United Nations and other aid organisations had forecast before the operation began.

IRC said that was due at least in part to the intensity of the fighting making it too dangerous for civilians to flee and reach the safety of the camps being set up around Mosul.

"Which is why Iraqi forces need to do everything they can to ensure there are safe routes of escape," Milutinovic said.

"The fighting in Mosul also makes it very difficult to deliver aid and with supplies already running low there are also fears that families will soon be without any food or medicine," he said.

- Wounded civilians -

Iraqi forces have been advancing slowly across eastern Mosul neighbourhoods in recent weeks, encouraging residents to hunker down in their homes.

No official tally has been divulged by the Iraqi authorities but civilians attempting to cross the battle lines to flee Mosul have paid a heavy price.

Those who have decided to stay at home also get routinely caught in the crossfire.

On Friday in the Khazir camp, east of Mosul, five ambulances rushed in with seven people wounded by rocket and mortar fire in the city's recently retaken Aden neighbourhood.

Mawlud, a man in his 50s, held his 18-month son in his arms, both of them covered in dust.

"Rockets and mortar shells fell on our homes in Aden, my wife was wounded in her leg and my other son Mustafa, who is seven got an arm injury," he said.

He said they were evacuated by elite forces from the Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) that have led the offensive in eastern Mosul.

They were later transferred by ambulance from Khazir, which hosts one of the main displacement camps near Mosul, to a nearby hospital.

The UN and other organisations have reported an increase in the number of wounded civilians and in the occurrence of the kind of injuries suggesting they were being deliberately targeted by IS as they attempted to flee.