Iraqi pro-government forces have made gains at the start of a large-scale operation to retake Mosul, the last major stronghold of the Islamic State (IS) in the country, a report said.

Iraqi government troops and Kurdish fighters launched their push towards the city in the early hours of Monday, said the BBC report.

IS seized Mosul, then Iraq's second-largest city, in June 2014.

The BBC's Orla Guerin, who is with Kurdish tank units advancing from the east, said they are now within 300m of IS positions.

The Kurds seized several villages in the first few hours of the operation.

An Iraqi military source told the BBC that combat units had inflicted heavy losses on IS forces as they moved in on the Hamdaniya district, east of Mosul.

Pro-government forces have also made gains as they move on Mosul from the south, security sources say.

Meanwhile IS claimed that a number of suicide attacks targeting pro-government forces on the outskirts of the city had suppressed the advance.