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ByMichaelAstor The Associated Press UNITEDNATIONS TheParis Agreement to combat cli- mate change became in- ternational law on Friday — a landmark deal about tackling global warming amid growing fears that the world is becoming hot- ter even faster than scien- tists expected. So far, 96 countries, ac- counting for just over two- thirds of the world's green- house gas emissions, have formally joined the accord, which seeks to limit global warming to 2 degrees Cel- sius (3.6 degrees Fahren- heit). More countries are expected to come aboard in the coming weeks and months. Secretary General Ban- Ki moon commemorated the event, talking with civil society groups at U.N. headquarters in New York to hear their concerns and visions for the future. "Today we make history in humankind's efforts to combat climate change," Ban said before opening the meeting. He praised the civil groups for mobilizing hun- dreds of millions of peo- ple to back fighting cli- mate change, but warned the outcome remained un- certain. "We are still in a race against time. We need to transition to a low-emis- sions and climate-resilient future," Ban said. "Now is the time to strengthen global resolve, do what sci- ence demands and seize the opportunity to build a safer more sustainable world for all." Scientists praised the speed at which the agree- ment, signed by over 190 parties last December in Paris, has come into force, saying it underscores a new commitment by the international community to address the problem which is melting polar ice caps, sending sea levels ris- ing and transforming vast swaths of arable land into desert. But environmentalists say the agreement is just the first step of a much longer and complicated process of transitioning away from fossil fuels, which currently supply the bulk of the planet's en- ergy needs and also are the primary drivers of global warming. Naomi Ages, climate lia- bility project lead at Green- peace, said that it was up to civil society groups to hold governments and cor- porations responsible. "We know that exist- ing fossil fuel projects will push us past 2 degrees, so we're mobilizing around the world to keep it in the ground and stop devel- opment of new fossil fuel projects," Ages said. While the Paris agree- ment is legally binding, the emissions reductions that each country has com- mitted to are not. Instead, the agreement seeks to cre- ate a transparent system that will allow the public to monitor how well each country is doing in meet- ing its goals in hopes that this will motivate them to transition more quickly to clean, renewable energy like wind, solar and hy- dropower. The agreement also re- quires governments to de- velop climate action plans that will be periodically revised and replaced with new, even more ambitious, plans. Many of these de- tails will begin to be ad- dressed at the COP22 cli- mate change meeting that begins next week in Mar- rakech, Morocco. Parisclimatechangedeal is now international law 96 COUNTRIES By Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Susannah George The Associated Press MOSUL, IRAQ Iraqi spe- cial forces launched a two- pronged assault deeper into Mosul's urban center on Friday, unleashing the most intense street battles against Islamic State mili- tants since the offensive be- gan nearly three weeks ago. Smoke rose across east- ern neighborhoods of Iraq's second-largest city as heavy fighting continued after sundown, with ex- plosions and machine gun fire echoing in the streets as mosques called for eve- ning prayer. Earlier, columns of ar- mored vehicles wound through the desert to open the new front, push- ing through dirt berms and drawing heavy fire as they closed in on the mid- dle-class Tahrir and Za- hara districts. The area was once named after for- mer Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Seven suicide attackers in explosives-laden vehi- cles barreled toward the troops, with two getting through and detonating their charges, Lt. Col. Mu- hanad al-Timimi told The Associated Press. The oth- ers were destroyed, includ- ing a bulldozer that was hit by an airstrike from the U.S.-led coalition support- ing the offensive. The advancing troops also came under heavy fire from mortars, auto- matic weapons, snipers and anti-tank rockets. At least five special forces troops were killed and an officer and three soldiers were wounded, said an Iraqi mil- itary officer who spoke on condition of anonymity be- cause he was not permitted to brief reporters. "The operation is going well, but it's slow. These kinds of advances are al- ways slow," said Iraqi spe- cial forces Cpt. Malik Ha- meed, as IS fighters could be seen running in the dis- tance to reposition them- selves. "If we tried to go any faster we would take even more injuries." Earlier, at the eastern ap- proach to the city's urban center, militants holed up in a building fired a rocket at an Iraqi Abrams tank, disabling it and sending its crew fleeing from the smok- ing vehicle. The advance in that area then stalled. An Iraqi television jour- nalist traveling in a Hum- vee was wounded in one of the suicide car bomb at- tacks. The push began as dawn broke with artillery and mortar strikes on the Aden, Tahrir, and Quds dis- tricts, just west of the spe- cial forces' footholds in the Gogjali and Karama neigh- borhoods, al-Timimi said. Both sides opened up with small arms and mortar fire after an artillery barrage by the special forces. Later, the regular army's ninth division, which has been following the special forces, moved into the east- ern Intisar neighborhood, said an officer from the unit who spoke on condi- tion of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. The Islamic State group is fighting to hold Mosul as Iraqi forces and allied Kurdish troops squeeze in from all directions with U.S.-led coalition support, mostly from airstrikes and reconnaissance. On Tuesday, Iraqi troops entered the city limits for the first time in more than two years, after a demor- alized Iraqi army fled the city in the face of the Is- lamic State group's 2014 blitz across large swaths of territory in Iraq and neigh- boring Syria. The Iraqi forces still face weeks if not months of ur- ban warfare as they work their way neighborhood by neighborhood in house- to-house battles through dense warrens of booby- trapped buildings. More than 1 million ci- vilians still remain in the city, complicating the ad- vance. IS militants have driven thousands of resi- dents deeper into the city's built-up areas to be used as human shields, while hun- dreds of others have fled toward government-con- trolled territory despite the uncertainty of resettlement in displacement camps. 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