17/10/2016 BBC News at Ten

the last big stronghold of so-called Islamic State in Iraq.

Iraqi forces and their allies - supported by the Royal Airforce -

are trying to eject the militants, who took control two years ago.

We're now at a distance of about 300 metres from the nearest

IS positions, but this is really just the first stage

of what is expected to be a long battle.

And on another front, south of Mosul, we'll be reporting

on the progress of Iraqi forces as they push forward.

We'll have reports from the front line, as concerns grow

for the thousands of civilians still trapped in Mosul.

The Ukip MEP who ended up in hospital after a scuffle

at the European Parliament, says he's leaving the party.

There is something rotten at the heart of Ukip.

I don't think that, at this stage, Ukip is governable.

Police say Ben Needham, who disappeared 25 years ago

ago on a Greek island, probably died in an accident.

In Nigeria, 21 schoolgirls kidnapped two years ago

by Islamist militants, have been reunited

And - the Olympic and Paralympic heroes of Team GB have been honoured

Coming up in Sportsday at 10:30pm on BBC News:

Wayne Rooney is dropped again by Manchester United for one

of the fixtures of the season, the trip to Anfield

The last major Iraqi stronghold controlled by so-called

Islamic State is under attack tonight from thousands

The Iraqi Prime Minister has declared that the 'hour

The troops are advancing on the city of Mosul,

more than two years after IS forces took control there.

But there are concerns for many thousands of civilians

who are likely to flee the fighting, with no safe routes out of the city.

Our correspondent Orla Guerin is with Kurdish forces,

At first light, the advance on so-called Islamic State.

Zero hour had finally come, bringing an offensive that

could decide the fate of the extremists and,

We joined Peshmerga fighters from the autonomous Kurdish region.

Their name means "those who face death", and they were ready

Well, the offensive is now well under way.

The Kurdish forces have been moving forwards steadily, and we've been

We are now at a distance of about 300 metres

But this is really just the first stage of what is expected

It could take months to drive the IS fighters

First, they have to be flushed out of the villages up ahead.

There were only a handful of IS remaining, but the Peshmerga

Here's what happened when one attacker approached

Before he could reach them, his vehicle exploded.

ISO tempted at least three more attacks but they bomb.

The Peshmerga say they are fighting a global battle.

They are not just fighting the Kurds or the Shia", says this Colonel.

We want to defeat them for everyone's sake."

This is the territory they took from the enemy today, about 80 square

miles. Any civilians were already long gone. There was little enough

resistance hero, but it will be a very different picture inside Mosul.

The Kurds are supposed to clear a path to the city, not go inside it.

But as they drive out IS, they've been adding to their territory and

what they've captured they intend to keep. Just one of the ways in which

the battle for Mosul could spell the end of Iraq.

The assault on Mosul is the biggest military operation

in Iraq for several years, with different groups approaching

Commanders say they have made good progress, but IS is also claiming

to have destroyed armoured vehicles, using suicide bombers.

Our defence correspondent Jonathan Beale is with Iraqi army

The Iraqi army is throwing everything it has into this

At night, tanks and armoured vehicles manoeuvred into position,

This - day one of what could be a long campaign.

Just before dawn they began their push forward.

We travelled with them in a bullet ridden Humvee,

our convoy tentatively moving forward in the tracks already

Two years ago the Iraqi army fled from IS, but now, with Western help,

At our first stop on Iraqi commander pointed out the position

They'll have to clear about 80 villages before they reach

But they tell me they're determined to defeat IS in the last

major stronghold in Iraq, even though the

We continued the move north, deeper into IS held territory,

The first phase of this operation is slow and careful.

We're travelling through desert and the Iraqi army are taking

The main threats here are minefields, suicide truck bombs

and mortars, and we're still about 30 miles from Mosul itself.

A tank fired at a suicide truck bomb before it

This, the aftermath of the massive explosion.

They used a rocket when they spotted what they said was an IS convoy,

about to make an escape from one of the outlying villages.

But they say there are also being helped with intelligence,

provided by Iraqi citizens still living under IS control.

How they're scared, how many carry weapons or don't carry weapons,

they have a motorcycle, they have heavy machine guns,

they don't have it, they escape north, east, west...

So you've got people inside who are passing

The Iraqi army is among few of the forces that will be

The majority of its troops are Shia, reflecting

They still hope they'll be greeted as liberators,

in a city mostly made up of Sunnis, but there are also fears

this fight could end with a more divided country.

Jonathan Beale, BBC News, on the road to Mosul.

When so-called Islamic State took control of Mosul -

Iraq's second biggest city - back in June 2014, it became a symbol

of its growing power in the region, and the IS leadership chose the city

As our world affairs editor John Simpson reports,

liberating Mosul would have wider implications for the Middle East,

though the battle itself could present a significant

Back in June 2014, it was a stunning victory

A small IS force drove a far larger garrison of Iraqi

Since then, they've controlled the city with great brutality,

and the inhabitants will be glad to get rid of them,

Today, Kurdish Peshmerga troops fighting on the side of the Iraqi

government were clearing out IS fighters from a number

of villages, about 20 miles from Mosul, but they had

How serious is this for so-called Islamic State?

This was the area IS controlled at the start of last year.

Now, 21 months later, it's in retreat almost everywhere.

But the operation will be extremely sensitive -

primarily because Mosul is Sunni-dominated.

Kurdish troops make up a sizeable proportion of the attacking force.

The Iraqi army is fighting alongside the Shia militia, and there's been

a history of bitter hostility between the militia and the Sunnis

The force is being backed by Western air strikes against IS positions.

There are around 30,000 Iraqi and Kurdish troops altogether,

against between 3,500 and 5,000 IS fighters.

But the defenders have had time to prepare.

They've dug networks of tunnels, they'll have planted plenty

of booby-trap bombs, they may have chemical weapons.

I know the Prime Minister said he'd like to wrap this up by the end

We'd like to do this as quickly as possible,

but this is going to be the Iraqi calendar, the Iraqi timeline.

Britain's involved in the Mosul campaign, too.

As recently as yesterday, our typhoons and unmanned aircraft

were striking terrorist positions on the outskirts of Mosul,

and our army has been helping to train the Iraqi

and Peshmerga forces who will be doing the fighting.

We're not putting combat troops on the ground into this operation.

The real danger is that the attack on Mosul could result

A million inhabitants may need food and shelter and be

Whether this will be seen as a victory for the Iraqi

government depends entirely on what happens to Mosul's civilians.

A humanitarian disaster would rebound very badly

A reminder - there's more on that story on our website,

including further analysis and background about the fight

against IS in Syria and Iraq - go to bbc.co.uk/news.

The MEP Steven Woolfe, who at one time had ambitions of leading Ukip,

has told the BBC that he's leaving the party, saying it's

become ungovernable and in a death spiral.

He said there was something rotten at the heart of Ukip.

Mr Woolfe also revealed he'd made a police complaint following

an altercation with a fellow Ukip MEP which led to him

Mr Woolfe has been giving more details of the incident,

as our political correspondent Alex Forsyth reports.

This was Steven Woolfe ten days ago in hospital after an altercation

Mr Woolfe says he ended up here after a

meeting in the European Parliament became heated.

He asked a colleague to step outside to talk man-to-man,

but he told me he never meant for it to get physical.

A blow to my face forced me back through the door.

The point is I couldn't see whether it was a fist,

The point is it impacted me in the face as the

I was pushed back into the room, and it

my back head against the back of one of the walls that was there.

But the other MEP involved, Mike Hookem,

has consistently denied assaulting Mr Woolfe,

saying he didn't punch, hit or push him, he says he was

I had had two seizures, one of three minutes,

I'd been unconscious for quite some time and there was partial paralysis

down the left-hand side and down my face, and they were

You were in hospital for three to four days, what

I think first and foremost, when your family have no idea what's

happening to you and they see a picture like that,

Prior to this incident, you were the first

person to say you wanted to be Ukip's next leader, to declare your

Well, there are no hopes as far as I'm concerned.

I will be withdrawing my application to become leader of Ukip.

I'm actually withdrawing myself from Ukip.

I'm resigning with immediate effect, which to me fills

Mr Woolfe said bitter infighting and opposing factions had made

There is something rotten at the heart of Ukip.

Somebody suggested it was a death spiral.

I think unless someone very quickly can wrestle with the issues that

they have got, then we will see the loss of something

Yes, I think the loss of the party, their

influence, the goodwill the British public have with them.

They let them down, they let themselves down.

Emotionally, and I think intellectually it has been an

I had so much expectation, inspiration, to

Tonight there was a Ukip meeting shortly before

Some were surprised by Mr Woolfe's decision.

Senior officials remain confident they will find a new leader who can

Steven's resignation was very disappointing,

obviously to lose someone of his ability.

We've got tens of thousands of members now, I think we want to

showcase our ability, the strength and depth of our talent

in these coming weeks, and I'm very excited

But, having lost one of the favourites to take over, Ukip is

Eight men have been found guilty of sexually abusing three girls

The court heard the men, all from the town, sexualised

their victims who were as young as 13 when the offences took place.

Police investigating the disappearance of Ben Needham,

the little boy who disappeared 25 years ago on the

say they now believe he was accidentally killed

near the farmhouse that his family was renovating.

The 21-month-old from Sheffield was last seen playing outside

Detectives from South Yorkshire have completed a new search

Our correspondent James Reynolds is on Kos.

25 years ago, Ben Needham disappeared not far from this, his

family's farmhouse, and the police now conclude that the little boy

died near here on the very same day that he went missing.

Ben Needham was 21 months old when he disappeared.

For a quarter of a century, his family hoped he might return.

But three weeks ago, the police began a search for his body.

Ben may have been accidentally run over and killed by a digger

driver, who then buried the boy's body nearby.

It is my professional belief that Ben Needham died as a result

of an accident near to the farmhouse, here in Iraklis,

The digger driver himself died last year.

His family insists he was innocent, but the police say they found

an important item which backs up their conclusion.

It is our initial understanding that this item was in Ben's

possession at or around the time that he went missing.

The recovery of this item and its location further adds

to my belief that material was removed from the farmhouse

on or shortly after the day that Ben disappeared.

The last time that I saw Ben, he was playing just

Ben Needham's grandfather spoke to reporters shortly

For weeks, then years, his family searched for him.

I've just got to keep that hope, for Ben's sake, because we love him

The campaign took over Kerry Needham's life.

She insisted that her son was still alive,

but as this final search began, she came to accept that he

I don't think the police would have given us this information if it

The official search for Ben Needham began and has ended

It finishes without a body for his family to bury,

and so this farmhouse and these fields may have to serve

as a memorial to a boy the police believed died more

14 teenage boys who'd been living in the Calais camp known

as the Jungle have arrived in the UK to be reunited with members

The children, aged between 14 and 17, were taken to

centre in Croydon where they were to be assessed before

being reunited with relatives already in Britain.

Russia has announced a pause in the bombing of Aleppo in Syria

on Thursday to allow rebels and civilians to leave.

condemned Moscow for causing what they described

as untold suffering in the rebel-held east of the city.

The ministers called for a ceasefire, but did not agree

In her first interview as chair of the child sex abuse inquiry,

Alexis Jay has told the BBC she has no intention of reducing

She's the fourth chair to be appointed following the decision

to launch a major investigation into claims that institutions

in England and Wales failed the victims of child sex abuse.

Alexis Jay has been speaking to our home affairs

What went on here is one of the reasons for the public

So this is what we are talking about?

He grew up in one of the houses making up Saint Leonards children

home in Essex, now occupied by families but not then.

They used to obviously pay visits to the weaker children

in dormitories and drag them out in the night.

But he is pessimistic that the public inquiry will ever

The way it is now, it's never going to come to its final

You know, ten, 15 years' time, ?150 million of taxpayers' money?

To find out that most of the people you are going after are now dead.

Its chair, Professor Alexis Jay, is under pressure to reduce its scope.

Today she gave her first interview in this job, and this response.

We have no intention to propose that any aspect of the terms of reference

has dropped, for example, we will not be doing that but we do

intend to use different models and ways of working to deliver

That means fewer public hearings, like this one in the

More behind-the-scenes research, the details yet to come but it

The inquiry occupies a floor of this London office block and is currently

made up of 13 mini inquiries and reports covering

all of these topics, from churches to children's homes.

To do all of this, the inquiry has got to act a bit like a court,

questioning witnesses and establishing facts,

but also like a therapist, supporting victims

And like a think tank, developing policies for the future.

So much to do that some of its critics say it should

concentrate just on the future and not the past.

I treat with some scepticism the calls for us to forget the past

because only by understanding the lessons we can learn from that

and the possible failings and cover-ups that might have taken

place in certain institutions will we go forward with confidence.

But the past for the inquiry includes the sometimes

of three chairwoman and its most senior lawyer.

These have been overcome, and particularly in the last nine

So I believe, if we can get on with our work without any more

Tomorrow, MPs will be questioning her about

the resignation of her predecessor, Dame Lowell Goddard.

Tonight, the Prime Minister continued to offer strong

This inquiry is saying we are listening, we recognise

the horrific crimes that were committed against you.

It is important that we find out why that was able to happen,

Professor Jay hopes the end of the inquiry

NatWest Bank is to close the accounts of Russia's

The broadcaster, previously known as Russia Today,

says the entire Royal Bank of Scotland Group, of which NatWest

is part, is refusing to provide its services.

An MP from Russia's ruling party has said its parliament will demand

Theresa May is to allow a brief pause in making a decision

on whether to approve a new runway at Heathrow so that Cabinet

The BBC has been told that expanding Heathrow is the preferred option.

But the Prime Minister has made it clear she wants

to hear the wide-ranging opinions of colleagues.

In Nigeria 21 schoolgirls kidnapped by Islamist militants in the town

of Chibok have finally been reunited with their families.

The girls were held for more than two years

One girl said she had thought the day of her

During a celebration in Abuja, Nigeria's Information Minister said

negotiations were under way to get another 83 girls freed

from captivity, as our correspondent Martin Patience reports.

After two and a half years, they are free at last.

Daughters reunited with their parents.

It was a time for celebration, but also reflection.

TRANSLATION: We are so excited, we never thought the day would come.

These girls were among the 276 students abducted by the Islamist

Speaking at an event to mark their release,

one girl describes the horrors they endured.

I never thought I would see you again.

There was a day when a bomb dropped by jets exploded

It is only by God's grace we survived.

For 30 days we went without food but yet we are here.

The parents wanted their daughters to get an education,

but it was the choice they thought had cost them their children.

I said to her, "Are you really alive?"

What did she tell you about her time in captivity?

They were told their parents are no longer alive,

All they did was cry, they never imagined

Officials say negotiations are continuing, but dozens

of students reportedly don't want to come home after

For now, these girls are celebrating their freedom,

but recovering from the kidnapping won't be easy, especially when most

of their schoolmates are still being held.

Thousands of people have lined the streets of Manchester to pay

tribute to Great Britain's Olympic and Paralympic teams and their

Between them, the two teams won a record 214 medals, both

of them coming second in their respective medal tables.

Our sports editor Dan Roan watched the celebrations

It was a city bursting with pride. Manchester, basking in gold today as

more than 150,000 people gathered to celebrate sporting success the whole

country shared in. For those who had starred in Rio, today's victory

parade a moment to cherish. It's awesome that so many people clear to

support us and to say thank you is an amazing opportunity. It hits home

how much you have achieved? Yes, you are in a bubble at the Games and

when you come back it is like wow, it has been awesome. The supporters

have done their maps. Team GB beat all expectations, remarkably

surpassing the London 2012 tally. Both sets of athletes defying the

odds and coming second in their respective medal tables. It is

really nice to see the number of people out on the streets today to

welcome me and cheer you on. I will just have a quick word with your

brother, Johnny. It is quite something, isn't it? It is

incredible. In Rio you are in your own bubble so this is very special

and thank you to everyone for coming out. Despite the occasional

downpour, nothing was going to dampen spirits and those who braved

the Manchester weather had this message for their heroes. They have

been absolutely fabulous, we are so proud to be British. Go, Team GB!

Amazing, and it got me out of school. The procession ended in a

packed Albert Square where the athletes came onto the stage. Among

them perhaps the most famous phrase, Jessica Ennis-Hill, this is a

fitting farewell for the heptathlete after announcing her retirement last

week. In my heart I knew it was the right decision and the right time to

do it but it is still difficult to say it publicly. The messages and

support I have had over the years is incredible so I cannot find you all

enough. If Britain's Olympians and Paralympians wondered how much their

remarkable achievement is meant to the millions watching back at home,

this is the emphatic answer. And this was an occasion truly fit for

heroes. These athletes have turned Great Britain into a sporting

superpower. Today their efforts received due recognition.

Newsnight's about to begin over on BBC Two in a few moments.

Well, Steven Woolfe does not want to be leader of Ukip,

we know that because he's resigned and said the party

We will be getting reaction from a man who still

Join me now on BBC Two, 11pm in Scotland.

That's Newsnight, now on BBC One it is time for the news where you are.