美国有线新闻 CNN 摩苏尔战役持续进行 卫星图片帮助了解城内近况

First story this Tuesday — it's been almost seven months since the battle begun to retake the Iraqi city of Mosul. The ISIS terrorist group overran Mosul back in 2014. It was Iraq's second largest city and it became ISIS's most important stronghold in the country.

But they're losing their grip on it. Iraqi and international forces, supported by U.S. troops, launched an effort to retake the city last October. It's been a long hard fight.

The coalition 1 liberated 2 the eastern part of the city in January and they have been trying to clear out the western parts since then. But though they have the advantage with about 100,000 coalition troops versus 3 a much smaller force of terrorists, ISIS is so dug in. They've been using tunnels, explosive traps, human shields, that it's been difficult to get to them.

Over the weekend, a U.S. soldier died while on patrol in Mosul. Army First Lieutenant 4 Weston Lee was hit by an explosive device. He was the second American military death in the battle.

For a look at the effects this has had on the city, we're now able to take you inside, thanks to the work of photojournalist Gabriel Chaim.

HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR & CORRESPONDENT: A tender father and daughter moment in the most brutal 5 of landscapes. Their home is only half standing 6. The city around them obliterated 7.

These exclusive drone pictures obtained by CNN show the scale of destruction on the frontlines of western Mosul. Neighborhoods newly freed from ISIS by Iraqi forces. As Iraq's elite 8 golden division rolls in in its armored vehicles, ISIS retreats, paying a heavy price. Bodies of its fighters still lie where they fell.

So, recently recaptured is this neighborhood that the black flag of ISIS still flutters overhead. The streets below eerily 9 deserted 10. A makeshift roadblock from where ISIS fought only weeks ago still standing.

In the video, dark smoke from burning tires and debris 11 bellows 12 across the skyline, desperate attempts by ISIS to hide themselves from airstrikes.

Here, the camera catches an explosion thought to be a mortar 13 hitting a building, a reminder 14 that fighting rages only meters away.

After months of street to street battle between ISIS and Iraqi forces and pounding from coalition airstrikes, the scale of devastation 15 in this part of Mosul is difficult to take in. In these drone images, it seems every building, every street, every car is shattered, nothing left to support human life.

So, the civilians 16 are forced to flee, clutching their children and their few belongings 17. Who knows what future lies before them as they join the millions of other refugees running from this war? And for those who stayed behind, picking through the splintered remains 18 of their lives, moments of joy still possible, before they're lost again in this bleak 19 and dusty scene.

Hala Gorani, CNN.