MOSUL, Iraq — The Iraqi army, buoyed by their victory this month in liberating the eastern half of Mosul from Islamic State militants, is now pushing into villages held by the Islamic Group, also known as ISIS, north of the city, an Iraqi officer overseeing the operation said Thursday.

Lt. Col. Diya Lafta said troops from the 9th Division under his command began advancing toward two villages just north of Mosul in the morning and “after a few hours they were liberated” from ISIS militants.

By afternoon, the village of Shereikhan had been largely freed of Islamic State militants but fighting continued in the villages beyond, according to reporters at the scene.

Thursday's operation forced hundreds of civilians to flee. Families escaping the clashes on foot clogged the road into Mosul as a cloud of smoke from an ISIS suicide bombing rose above the horizon.

According to one fleeing resident, Islamic State fighters still control a number of other villages along Mosul's northern edge.

The push came after Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi earlier this week declared Mosul's eastern half to be completely free of the Islamic State group.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump is expected to ask the Pentagon for ways to accelerate the fight against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, and officials said the options probably would include steps the Obama administration considered but never acted on, from adding significantly more U.S. troops to boosting military aid to Kurdish fighters

Trump's visit Friday to the Defense Department's headquarters will start the conversation over how to fulfill his inauguration address pledge to eradicate radical Islamic terrorism “completely from the face of the Earth.”

Female Marines in infantry to sleep by male Marines in field

A Marine Corps official says female infantry Marines will be sleeping in makeshift shelters next to their male counterparts when out in the field and no special accommodation will be offered to them.

Maj. Charles Anklam said Thursday that Marines in the field stay in everything from a large, single room shelter filled with dozens of cots to sleeping under tarps or nothing at all. Anklam is executive officer for 1st Battalion, 8th Marines at Camp Lejeune, N.C. The unit is the first gender-integrated Marine infantry battalion and accepted its first three women this month.

Anklam says female Marines have private rooms and bathrooms in their living quarters, but will be expected to sleep wherever their male squad members do in the field to keep unit cohesion.

Federal judge rejects Ohio's new lethal injection process

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A federal judge on Thursday declared Ohio's new lethal injection process unconstitutional and delayed three executions, including one scheduled next month.

The ruling by Magistrate Judge Michael Merz in Dayton followed a weeklong hearing over the three-drug method Ohio planned to use Feb. 15 on death row inmate Ronald Phillips.

The judge agreed with attorneys for Phillips and two other condemned killers that the first drug in the process, the sedative midazolam, couldn't pass a constitutional bar of causing “substantial risk of serious harm” previously set by the U.S. Supreme Court. The judge also barred Ohio from using the second and third drugs in the protocol that paralyze inmates and stop their hearts.

TransCanada makes new application for Keystone XL

CALGARY, Alberta — TransCanada Corp. has submitted a new presidential permit application to the U.S. Department of State for approval of the Keystone XL pipeline.

The project would move oil 1,180 miles from Alberta to Steele City, Neb., where it would connect with other lines for refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The application comes after President Donald Trump signed an order earlier this week to expedite the project.

Trump directed the State Department and other agencies to make a decision within 60 days of a final application. He also declared that a 2014 environmental study satisfies required reviews under environmental and endangered species laws.

Former President Barack Obama rejected Keystone XL in 2015.

Bill would grant access to Facebook after death

SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah legislative panel backed a proposal Thursday that would allow residents to pass down their social media and email accounts to relatives as easily as they do their belongings after they die.

The proposal would allow a person to give their fiduciary, such as an heir or a trustee, power to oversee their digital accounts if they die or are incapacitated. Each person would be able to specify how much access they want their fiduciary to have.

Danny Harris, director of advocacy at AARP Utah, said that he supports the plan, since it helps caregivers look after their aging relatives.

Republican Rep. Lowry Snow, who sponsored the legislation, said Google and Facebook have told him that they support the proposal.

Utah considered a similar move last year.

Throngs cheer new leader's return to Gambia

BANJUL, Gambia — President Adama Barrow returned triumphantly to Gambia on Thursday, nearly two months after winning an election disputed by the country's longtime dictator, to the cheers of hundreds of thousands who jammed the roads in welcome.

The impasse after the Dec. 1 balloting had brought Gambia to the brink of military intervention, as regional leaders vowed to install the democratically elected Barrow despite legal efforts by longtime ruler Yahya Jammeh to overturn the election. Barrow had flown to Banjul from Senegal, where he had waited for Jammeh to leave Gambia.

Gambians had eagerly awaited Barrow, who promised to reverse many of the authoritarian policies of Jammeh, who oversaw a regime accused of imprisoning, torturing and killing opponents.

Hasty at Harvard: Academy Award-winning actress Octavia Spencer on Thursday picked up another award: Woman of the Year by Harvard University's Hasty Pudding Theatricals. Spencer won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2011's “The Help.” She was nominated again Tuesday for “Hidden Figures,”

Arkansas abortion: Arkansas' governor on Thursday approved a ban on a commonly used second-trimester abortion procedure — restrictions that are expected to face a legal challenge.

Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed into law a measure banning the procedure known as dilation and evacuation.