COSTELLO: Iraqi forces now at Mosul's doorstep. It's as close as the coalition backed troops have come in their push to recapture the city, the last major stronghold for ISIS in Iraq. Their advance, expected to trigger some of the fiercest fighting yet. Arwa Damon is embedded with Iraqi troops. She joins us now live with more.</s>ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, we were just on that front line, around 600 feet from Mosul itself next to the Mosul TV antenna station. And this is what many people do actually consider to be its eastern most perimeter. The neighborhoods there were coming under some pretty intense mortar, rocket, and sniper fire by ISIS elements, believed to be inside Mosul itself. And on the road going up there the Iraqi counter terrorism units were regularly clearing IEDs. Intelligence about where they were buried was, in fact, on at least two occasions that we wouldn't have seen, given to them by the civilian population. And the particular town that they were moving through, the town of Gugjali, which is what they are currently in the process of clearing of the last ISIS elements and of explosives. The residents there did not flea ahead of the offensive and the Iraqi security forces pretty much told everyone to stay in place and take cover. Around 20,000 people were still there. We spoke to a number of them and the stories are just unbelievable. We spoke to one mother who said that ISIS enslaved her for not supporting them, raped her, and then she gave birth to a baby boy. And she says all she can do is pray he never finds out about his father.</s>COSTELLO: Just horrible stories. So we'll wait to see if they can make it inside the city and get more of those poor people out. Arwa Damon, reporting live from inside Iraq this morning. Still to come in</s>THE NEWSROOM: New Hampshire in the crosshairs. Clinton sending out her surrogates, while Trump hammers away on Clinton's email.
Iraqi Forces at Mosul's Doorstep