Today in Pictures: Oct. 18

Smoke billows from the village of Shaqouli as Iraqi forces take part in an operation against the Islamic State group jihadists. With the crucial battle in its second day, Iraqi commanders said progress was being made as fighters pushed on two main fronts against the jihadists' last stronghold in Iraq.

A stroller walks along linden trees during early morning mist at the Georgengarten in Hannover, northern Germany, Oct. 18.

Love Manie Simeus, 12, reads the Bible by candlelight in her school's classroom where she and other residents have taken refuge after Hurricane Matthew destroyed their homes, Les Cayes, Haiti, Sunday, Oct. 16, 2016. While her school is used as a shelter, Love has been trying to keep her mind sharp by reading the Bible to illiterate storm refugees and looking through school library books that made it through the storm.

A peshmerga fighter looks out of the entrance of an underground tunnel built by Islamic State fighters, Oct. 18. The Kurdish forces found the tunnel in the town of Badana that was liberated from the Islamic State group on Monday. The fighters built tunnels under residential areas so they could move without being seen from above to avoid airstrikes.

Members of People's Liberation Army honor guards rehearse ahead a welcome ceremony for Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Children sleep on a square near a church in Manila, Philippines. People who have been spending their nights outside the church for a long time, say there are more people joining them since the beginning of the country's war on drugs.

A fruit vendor waits for customers in Tawfiqia market in downtown Cairo. Egypt's economy has been battered by unrest since the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Inflation and unemployment are in double digit and domestic and foreign debts are growing as Egypt's currency tumbles.

Clouds of starlings fly into the vineyards to eat grapes in Mont-sur-Rolle, Switzerland. On the day after grape harvest, bird swarms forage in the vineyard before heading further south.

A black and white portrait of late Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej, with a message of respect in his memory is displayed on a major thoroughfare as part of the country's mourning for the Thai King, in Bangkok, Thailand. King Bhumibol, the world's longest reigning monarch died at the age of 88 in the Siriraj hospital in Bangkok on Oct. 13.

A rat's squeezes its head through a constricted opening at the bottom of a garbage can in Brooklyn, New York.