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In pictures: 90-year-old woman flees war-torn Mosul

Khatla Ali Abdullah, 90, is embraced as she flees her home as Iraqi forces battle with Islamic State militants in western Mosul, Iraq. Ninety-year-old Khatla survived decades of turbulence in northern Iraq, but the frail grandmother who fled the battle for Mosul this week says the fighting there is the worst she has ever seen. (Zohra Bensemra/REUTERS)

Updated on: Mar 03, 2017 1:52 PM IST

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Khatla Ali Abdullah, 90, is embraced as she flees her home as Iraqi forces battle with Islamic State militants in western Mosul, Iraq. Ninety-year-old Khatla survived decades of turbulence in northern Iraq, but the frail grandmother who fled the battle for Mosul this week says the fighting there is the worst she has ever seen. (Zohra Bensemra/REUTERS)

Updated on Mar 03, 2017 1:52 PM

Khatla Ali Abdullah, 90, is embraced as she flees her home as Iraqi forces battle with Islamic State militants in western Mosul, Iraq. Ninety-year-old Khatla survived decades of turbulence in northern Iraq, but the frail grandmother who fled the battle for Mosul this week says the fighting there is the worst she has ever seen. (Zohra Bensemra/REUTERS)

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Carried across the desert by her grandsons, under sniper and mortar fire, she was one of thousands who braved the difficult and dangerous journey out of Islamic State’s shrinking stronghold in the west of the city. (Zohra Bensemra/REUTERS)

Updated on Mar 03, 2017 1:52 PM

Carried across the desert by her grandsons, under sniper and mortar fire, she was one of thousands who braved the difficult and dangerous journey out of Islamic State’s shrinking stronghold in the west of the city. (Zohra Bensemra/REUTERS)

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A grandson of Khatla Ali Abdullah, looks through the tent's window in Hammam al Alil camp while Iraqi forces battle with Islamic State militants, in western Mosul. Khatla lived through Saddam Hussein’s quarter century in power, when Iraq fought wars with neighbouring Iran and Kuwait and endured a decade of devastating sanctions. (Zohra Bensemra/REUTERS)

Updated on Mar 03, 2017 1:52 PM

A grandson of Khatla Ali Abdullah, looks through the tent's window in Hammam al Alil camp while Iraqi forces battle with Islamic State militants, in western Mosul. Khatla lived through Saddam Hussein’s quarter century in power, when Iraq fought wars with neighbouring Iran and Kuwait and endured a decade of devastating sanctions. (Zohra Bensemra/REUTERS)

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Khatla Ali Abdullah , 90, who recently fled her house in Al Mamoun district looks at photographs on a mobile phone as she sits with her grandsons in her tent in Hammam al Alil camp. Even under the Saddam era, we were afraid because of the atrocities and the people killed, she said. But nothing is compared to this phase. (Zohra Bensemra/REUTERS)

Updated on Mar 03, 2017 1:52 PM

Khatla Ali Abdullah , 90, who recently fled her house in Al Mamoun district looks at photographs on a mobile phone as she sits with her grandsons in her tent in Hammam al Alil camp. Even under the Saddam era, we were afraid because of the atrocities and the people killed, she said. But nothing is compared to this phase. (Zohra Bensemra/REUTERS)

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Since the launch of the military campaign in October to retake Mosul from Islamic State, Khatla remained in her home in the city’s southwestern al-Mamoun district, now in the hands of Iraq’s U.S.-backed Counter Terrorism Service (CTS). (Zohra Bensemra/REUTERS)

Updated on Mar 03, 2017 1:52 PM

Since the launch of the military campaign in October to retake Mosul from Islamic State, Khatla remained in her home in the city’s southwestern al-Mamoun district, now in the hands of Iraq’s U.S.-backed Counter Terrorism Service (CTS). (Zohra Bensemra/REUTERS)

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At times she took shelter in her basement with the 20 chickens that she looked after - reminders, she said, of her youth when she also herded sheep and cattle. (Zohra Bensemra/REUTERS)

Updated on Mar 03, 2017 1:52 PM

At times she took shelter in her basement with the 20 chickens that she looked after - reminders, she said, of her youth when she also herded sheep and cattle. (Zohra Bensemra/REUTERS)

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Khatla Ali Abdullah, 90, who recently fled her home in Al Mamoun district talks to her relative as she sits with her daughter (L) in her tent in Hammam al Alil camp. I haven’t lost any chickens, not even a one little chick,” she said. We were trapped in the basement and we could hear the bullets hitting the metal roof of the chicken pen. (Zohra Bensemra/REUTERS)

Updated on Mar 03, 2017 1:52 PM

Khatla Ali Abdullah, 90, who recently fled her home in Al Mamoun district talks to her relative as she sits with her daughter (L) in her tent in Hammam al Alil camp. I haven’t lost any chickens, not even a one little chick,” she said. We were trapped in the basement and we could hear the bullets hitting the metal roof of the chicken pen. (Zohra Bensemra/REUTERS)

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We just want to make it through this war, she said. This one will make stories for generations to tell. (Zohra Bensemra/REUTERS)

Updated on Mar 03, 2017 1:52 PM

We just want to make it through this war, she said. This one will make stories for generations to tell. (Zohra Bensemra/REUTERS)

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