Daesh ultras terrorize Mosul civilians as Iraq forces advance

Daesh ultras terrorize Mosul civilians as Iraq forces advance

April 27, 2017
A displaced Iraqi girl from western Mosul carries her sibling at the Hammam Al-Alil camp, as Iraq’s elite Counter-Terrorism Service retook full control of Tenek — one of the largest neighborhoods in west Mosul — further tightening the noose on Daesh militants. — AFP
A displaced Iraqi girl from western Mosul carries her sibling at the Hammam Al-Alil camp, as Iraq’s elite Counter-Terrorism Service retook full control of Tenek — one of the largest neighborhoods in west Mosul — further tightening the noose on Daesh militants. — AFP

MOSUL — Iraqi forces advanced in west Mosul Tuesday, closing in on the Old City where militants executed civilians in a desperate bid to prevent an exodus and hold on to their stronghold.

The elite Counter-Terrorism Service retook full control of Tenek — one of the largest neighborhoods in west Mosul — further tightening the noose on Daesh (the so-called IS) group.

“It used to be one of the main strongholds for terrorist groups,” Staff Lt. Gen. Abdulwahab Al-Saadi, a top CTS commander, told AFP in Mosul.

The elite forces have been spearheading a massive offensive launched in mid-October 2016 to retake Mosul, the country’s second city and the last major Iraqi bastion of the militants now crumbling “caliphate”.

The eastern side of the city, which is divided by the Tigris river, was recaptured in January, and a push on the west bank of Mosul launched the following month has made steady progress despite fierce resistance.

“More than 20 car bombs were destroyed, dozens of terrorist militants were killed. Their bodies are still on the streets and inside houses,” said Saadi.

Only a few hundred Daesh fighters are believed to remain in west Mosul, most of them hunkering down in the Old City among several hundred thousand trapped civilians.

Iraqi forces have retaken neighborhoods to the south, west and north of the Old City, tightening the noose around Daesh before a high-risk final assault.

The narrow streets of the Old City and its population density will force the Iraqi forces to conduct perilous dismounted operations which observers fear could yet allow holdout militants to stage a protracted last stand.

Civilians executed

The use of “human shields” is a key part of the militants’ defense and on Monday they executed several civilians, in an apparent bid to deter any of them from fleeing or rising up.

Daesh militants wearing federal police uniforms pretended to be security forces entering an area of the Old City to “liberate” it. They executed some of the civilians who gave them a hero’s welcome, the Joint Operations Command coordinating the war on Daesh and a local official said.

“Daesh terrorist gangs committed a brutal crime yesterday,” the JOC said, explaining that the militants wanted to “confound civilians who expressed joy and welcomed them with chanting”.

The JOC statement did not specify how many were killed in that manner but Hossameddin Al-Abbar, a member of Nineveh provincial council, told AFP at least 15 civilians were shot dead.

“Daesh members, some of them wearing federal police uniforms, entered the Al-Maidan and Corniche areas of the Old City,” he said.

“They were driving black vehicles and posing as liberators from the Iraqi forces,” Abbar added. “When some families welcomed them, they arrested several of them. They executed at least 15 other people.”

Piling further pressure on the militants, Iraqi forces resumed an operation on a separate front southwest of Mosul.

Early on Tuesday, forces from the Hashed Al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization) paramilitary forces pushed toward the Hatra area, which includes a UN-listed World Heritage site. — AFP


April 27, 2017
HIGHLIGHTS