'I thought you'd never come': Girl tells Iraqi soldier after being freed from ISIS

Kafer, Mosul: Even as Iraqi forces continue to battle ISIS in Iraq's Mosul, a minor girl who was freed from the terror group's clutches told her saviours that she wanted to 'kiss their feet'.

Describing life under ISIS, ten-year-old Aysha said that she had been without food or water for days.

According to a report in the Daily Mail, she also told Iraqi forces how her father and several other people were slaughtered by ISIS terrorists who had been controlling Mosul since 2014.

Aysha said that she and her mother were left with nothing when the militants took charge of their village Kafer, 18 miles away from Mosul and started killing people.

"I'm so thankful to you. I thought you would never come for us. We have had no food or water for three days and it was just me and my mother, my father was taken and killed by the terrorists," she told the soldiers.

"The IS men have taken away so many children from my village and we don't know what happened to them. Some of them died. The men made my mother give them her money and jewels and we have had nothing. Thank you, thank you. I would like to kiss your feet," she added.

The soldier who rescued her was so touched by her gesture that he leaned down to kiss Aysha's head. He then carried her in his arms to safety.

Iraqi forces have been closing in on Mosul in recent weeks but the battle begun Monday could be the toughest yet against IS.

ISIS terrorists are vastly outnumbered, with the US military estimating 3,000 to 4,500 jihadists in and around Mosul.

Iraq's elite counterterrorism forces patrol outside the town of Bartella, Iraq. (Photo: AP)

Early Monday, federal forces moved from their main staging base of Qayyarah, south of Mosul, as Peshmerga forces from the autonomous Kurdish region advanced from the east.

Around 4,000 Kurdish Peshmerga took part in a push to reclaim villages once inhabited by members of the Christian and Kakai minorities, a statement said.

Several villages were promptly recaptured and peshmerga forces had moved to the edges of Qaraqosh and Bartalla, two Christian towns IS seized in August 2014, commanders said.

Iraqi forces advancing on multiple fronts are some distance from Mosul and are expected to eventually take up positions on the city's edge and lay siege before breaching its boundaries and directly engaging die-hard jihadists.