Take cover! News reporter throws herself on the floor after hearing an explosion near Mosul - to the amusement of laughing Iraqi soldiers who tell her to get up
- CBS network's Holly Williams was recording a piece to camera near Mosul
- The Australian reporter hears blast in the distance and drops to the floor
- Bemused and battle-hardened soldiers casually stroll by laughing at her
- One gestures for her to get up and tries to take a photo of her on his iPad
A CBS news reporter brought light relief to Iraqi soldiers who laughed and took photos as she threw herself to the floor after hearing an explosion.
Australian Holly Williams was recording a piece on Mosul when she heard the distant blast and took cover.
In the video, battle-hardened soldiers take no notice of the explosion as they continue to go about their business.
Holly Williams was recording a piece on Mosul for a US news station when she heard the distant blast and took cover
No one else seemed to be that bothered by the distant explosion as Wiliams looked around and slapped the ground
One soldier is even heard laughing and another waves the reporter back to her feet before trying to get a photograph on his iPad.
As she readjusts her helmet, she continues her broadcast to camera on all fours for CBS.
The footage was taken on the outskirts of Mosul, which is locked in a fierce battle for control between Islamic State and US-backed coalition soldiers.
Wiliams is a veteran foreign correspondent who most recently has been in Iraq and Syria covering the Syrian civil war and the fight against ISIS.
On her CBS profile, she said: 'I always want to stress to people that we do go to places that are -where there's kind of an inherent danger because there's conflict.
'But, I don't want to die and I really don't want any of the people I work with to die.
'So we're constantly doing our best to kind of mitigate and avoid actually going anywhere that we might die or be injured.'
On her CBS profile, Holly Williams said: 'I always want to stress to people that we do go to places that are -where there's kind of an inherent danger because there's conflict
IS captured Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, when it swept across much of northern and western Iraq in the summer of 2014
The battle to liberate Mosul has entered its third day as it was revealed ISIS were using citizens as human shields in an attempt to retain stronghold.
The accusation has come from US troops, who say they have driven ISIS out of 10 villages in the latest operation in co-operation with Kurdish allies.
It's main purpose is to dethrone ISIS in Mosul, where there is understood to be up to 1.5million people living in the city including 5,000 terrorists.
IS captured Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, in a lightning advance in the summer of 2014. The extremist group has suffered a string of defeats over the past year, and Mosul is its last major urban bastion in Iraq.
So far, the militants have put up fierce resistance in villages surrounding the city, where most of the fighting has been concentrated. IS has sent trucks loaded with explosives careening toward the front lines and fired mortars to slow the Iraqi forces' advance.
An Iraqi officer from the 9th Division told The Associated Press that his troops were now around 1 kilometer (half mile) away from Hamdaniyah, a historically Christian town also known as Bakhdida, to the east of Mosul.
Over the past couple of days, IS sent 12 car bombs, all of which were blown up before reaching their targets, he said, adding that Iraqi troops suffered a small number of casualties from the mortar rounds. The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters, did not provide specific figures.
The operation to retake Mosul is the largest launched by the Iraqi army since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Some 25,000 troops, including Sunni tribal fighters, Kurdish forces known as the peshmerga and state-sanctioned Shiite militias known as the Popular Mobilization Units are approaching the city from different directions.
The participation of the Shiite militias in the operation to retake the mainly Sunni Mosul has raised concerns that the campaign could inflame sectarian tensions. Rights groups have accused the Shiite militias of abuses in past campaigns against IS-held areas.
Tarik Kadir, head of Save the Children's response to the Mosul crisis, says that 'conditions there are among the worst we've seen, and we expect thousands more people to be on their way soon'
An aid group says thousands of Iraqis are fleeing to Syria in order to escape the fighting.
Save the Children said on Wednesday that 5,000 people have arrived at the al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria from the Mosul area in the last 10 days, with 1,000 more waiting to enter at the border.
The group says the camp was ill-equipped to receive the refugees, saying it is "littered with waste and feces, with a looming risk of outbreaks of disease." It says there are just 16 latrines shared by more than 9,000 people, many of whom only have access to dirty, untreated water.
Tarik Kadir, head of Save the Children's response to the Mosul crisis, says that 'conditions there are among the worst we've seen, and we expect thousands more people to be on their way soon'.
The operation to retake Mosul is the largest launched by the Iraqi army since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion
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