Battle for Mosul: More than 40,000 flee as Iraqi forces push into city's west
Posted
March 06, 2017 09:07:30
More than 40,000 people have fled the Iraqi city of Mosul in the past week, as US-backed forces launch a fresh push towards the Islamic State-held old city centre.
Key points:
- Iraqi forces say they are close to taking West Mosul's main government complex
- More than 200,000 people are now known to have fled the fighting
- Weekend reports of the use of chemical weapons are being investigated
The pace of displacement has accelerated in recent days as fighting approaches the most densely populated parts of western Mosul.
Aid agencies say they are worried that the camps set up to house people fleeing the city are almost full.
The International Organisation for Migration's Mosul Displacement Tracking Matrix showed the number of people uprooted since the start of the offensive in October exceeded 206,000 on Sunday, up from 164,000 on February 26.
That number may still rise sharply.
The United Nations last month warned that more than 400,000 people — more than half the remaining population in western Mosul — could be forced to leave their homes.
Iraqi forces captured the eastern side of Mosul in January after 100 days of fighting and launched their attack on the districts that lie west of the Tigris river on February 19.
Defeating Islamic State in Mosul would crush the Iraqi wing of the caliphate declared by the group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in 2014, over parts of Iraq and Syria.
Rapid Response units and Counter Terrorism Service forces launched a fresh push into the city on Sunday after a 48-hour pause due to bad weather that hampered air surveillance, allowing the militants to counter-attack.
Battle for central government complex
Iraqi forces are "very close" to the government buildings near the old city, said a senior media officer with the elite Interior Ministry units, but their progress was met with heavy sniper and mortar fire.
The complex, which houses the Nineveh Provincial Council and the Nineveh Governorate buildings, should be taken on Monday, Lieutenant Colonel Abdel Amir al-Mohammadawi told reporters.
Recapturing the site would help Iraqi forces attack the militants in the nearby old city.
But it would also mark a symbolic step towards restoring state authority over Mosul, even though the buildings are destroyed and not being used by Islamic State.
Rapid Response units have captured the Danadan district, which lies just south-east of the complex, while US-trained Counter-Terrorism Service units pushed through Tal al-Ruman and the Somood districts, to the south-west.
The Iraqi military believes several thousand militants, including many who travelled from Western countries, are hunkered down among the remaining civilian population, which aid agencies estimated to number 750,000 in western Mosul at the start of the latest offensive.
The militants are using suicide car bombers, snipers and booby traps to counter the offensive waged by the 100,000-strong force of Iraqi troops, Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and Iranian-trained Shiite Muslim paramilitary groups.
Reports of chemical weapons being investigated
They were also reported to have fired rockets and mortar rounds filled with toxic agents from the western side of the city into the eastern, government-controlled side.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) offered to assist the Iraqi government in investigating the use of chemical weapons in Mosul.
Twelve people, including women and children, are being treated in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdish region east of Mosul, for possible exposure to chemical agents causing blisters, eye redness, vomiting and irritation, the United Nations said on Saturday.
Islamic State used chemical weapons at least 52 times in Iraq and Syria and at least 19 times in the areas around Mosul between 2014 and November 2016, according to data collected by IHS Markit.
Several thousand people have been killed or wounded so far in the Mosul offensive, both civilians and military, according to aid organisations.
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An Iraqi special forces soldier runs across a street during a battle with Islamic State militants in Mosul, Iraq March 3, 2017. (Reuters: Goran Tomasevic)
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Iraqi security forces advance during fighting against Islamic State militants, in western Mosul, Iraq, Tuesday, February 28. (AP: Mohammed Numan)
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Iraqi security forces help a displaced Iraqi woman flee her home as Iraqi forces battle with Islamic State militants in western Mosul, Iraq February 26, 2017. (Reuters: Alaa Al-Marjani)
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Iraqi security forces are pictured during a battle with Islamic State militants in western Mosul, Iraq February 26, 2017. (Reuters: Alaa Al-Marjani)
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A displaced woman covers her daughter after fleeing the battle near Mosul. (Reuters: Adhmed Jadallah)
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Iraqi soldier treks into battle. (ABC News: Aaron Hollett)
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Locals are hopeful the cruel rule of IS is over. (Reuters: Azad Lashkari)
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Members of the Iraqi rapid response forces stand on the top of vehicle during a battle between Iraqi forces and Islamic State militants in Wahda district of eastern Mosul, Iraq, January 8, 2017. (Reuters: Alaa Al-Marjani)
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Displaced people who fled the clashes walk past Iraqi security forces vehicles during a battle with Islamic State militants in Mosul, Iraq, November 30, 2016. (Reuters: Alaa Al-Marjani)
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Members of the Shiite Badr Organisation fighters take cover behind a berm during a battle with Islamic State militants at the airport of Tal Afar west of Mosul, Iraq, November 20, 2016. (Reuters: Khalid al Mousily)
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Iraqi special forces policemen dance while holding up weapons outside Karamah, south of Mosul, Iraq November 11, 2016. (Reuters: Goran Tomasevic)
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An Iraqi soldier gestures along a street in the Intisar district of eastern Mosul, Iraq, November 14, 2016. (Reuters: Air Jalal)
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A family fleeing fighting between the Islamic State and Iraqi army in Intisar district of eastern Mosul, make their way to safer territory, November 8, 2016. (Reuters: Zohra Bensemra)
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Iraqi soldiers pose with the Islamic State flag along a street in the Intisar district of eastern Mosul, Iraq, November 14, 2016, after capturing the same area from this district from the Islamic State on November 3. (Reuters: Air Jalal)
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An Iraqi special forces soldier stands atop a Humvee in the village of Bazwaia, some eight kilometres from the centre of Mosul, Iraq, Monday, Oct. 31, 2016. (AP: Marko Drobnjakovic)
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Iraqi special forces soldiers move in formation in an alley on the outskirts of Mosul, Iraq, Friday, Nov. 4, 2016. Heavy fighting erupted in the eastern neighbourhoods of Mosul on Friday as Iraqi special forces launched an assault deeper into the urban areas of the city and swung round to attack Islamic State militants from a second entry point, to the northeast. (AP: Marko Drobnjakovic)
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Tribal fighters walk as fire and smoke rises from oil wells, set ablaze by Islamic State militants before IS militants fled the oil-producing region of Qayyara, Iraq, November 1, 2016. (Reuters: Alaa Al-Marjani)
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A member of the Iraqi Special Operations Forces (ISOF) kisses a shiite flag on the top of a military vehicle on the outskirts of Bartila, east of Mosul, during an operation to attack Islamic State militants in Mosul, Iraq, October 19, 2016 (Reuters: Azad Lashkari)
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FILE - In this May 27, 2015 photo, Iraqi Shiite Hezbollah Brigade militiamen prepare their armoured vehicles for fighting against the Islamic State group in the front line after regaining control of eastern Husaybah town, 8 kilometers (5 miles) east of Ramadi, Iraq. State-sanctioned Shiite militias launched an assault on the Islamic State group west of the Iraqi city of Mosul on Saturday, Oct. 29, 2016, but reiterated that they would not enter the Sunni majority city. Jaafar al-Husseini, a spokesman for the Hezbollah Brigades, said they launched an offensive Saturday along with other large militias toward the town of Tel Afar, which had a Shiite majority before it fell to IS in 2014. (AP)
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Peshmerga military vehicles drive in Nawaran north of Mosul during an operation to attack Islamic State militants, Iraq October 26, 2016. (Reuters: Ari Jalal)
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Iraqi army soldiers are seen beside their armoured vehicles as a smoke from a nearby sulfur plant set alight by Islamic State militants rises behind, on the outskirts of Qayyara, south of Mosul, Iraq, October 23, 2016. (Reuters: Zohra Bensemra)
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Iraq's elite counterterrorism forces advance toward Islamic State positions as fighting to retake the extremist-held city of Mosul enters its second week, in the village of Tob Zawa, outside Mosul, Monday, October 24, 2016. (AP: Khalid Mohammed)
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A convoy of armoured vehicles belonging to international coalition troops drive during the operation against Islamic State militants outside the town of Naweran near Mosul, Iraq on October 23, 2016. (Reuters: Azad Lashkari)
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Smoke rises at Islamic State militants' positions in the town of Naweran, near Mosul, Iraq, October 23, 2016 (Reuters: Azed Lashkari)
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Peshmerga forces fire a mortar towards Islamic state militants' positions in the town of Naweran near Mosul, October 23, 2016. (Reuters: Azad Lashkari)
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An Iraqi special forces soldier stands in a Christian cemetery inside a church compound damaged by Islamic States fighters in Bartella, east of Mosul, Iraq. (Reuters: Goran Tomasevic)
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Iraqi army gather after the liberation of a village from Islamic State militants, south of Mosul, during an operation to attack Islamic State militants in Mosul, Iraq, October 21, 2016, as toxic smoke is seen over the area after Islamic State militants set fire to a sulphur factory. (Reuters: Thaier Al-Sudan )
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Peshmerga forces stand behind rocks at a site of an attack by Islamic State militants in Kirkuk, Iraq, October 21, 2016. (Reuters: Ako Rasheed)
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Peshmerga forces prepare their anti-tank guided missiles in front of Islamic State militants' positions at the town of Naweran near Mosul, Iraq October 20, 2016. (Reuters: Zohra Bensemra)
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Smoke rises from clashes in the east of Mosul during clashes with Islamic State militants, Iraq, October 17, 2016. (Reuters: Azad Lashkari)
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Kurdish security forces take up a position as they fight overlooking the Islamic State-controlled in villages surrounding Mosul, in Khazer, about 30 kilometres east of Mosul, Iraq on October 17, 2016. (AP)
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Iraqi army soldiers raise their weapons in celebration on the outskirts of Mosul, Iraq, Thursday, Oct. 20, 2016. (AP)
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Displaced people who have fled ISIS territory gather in the village of Tinah, south west of Mosul. (Supplied: Thomas Robinson/Oxfam)
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Smoke rising over rows of tents at the Tinah camp, from oil fields burning in the distance. (Supplied: Thomas Robinson/Oxfam)
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Two young children living at Golat camp in Debaga north of Mosul pose for a photo, while men construct more tents in the background. (Supplied: Amy Christian/Oxfam)
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Mokhtar (village head) Nisr Amr, 35, sits with his son in the ruins of his father's house in the village of Imam Gharbi, some 70km south of Mosul. October 13, 2016. (Oxfam: Sam Tarling )
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Omar stands inside by the ruins of his brother's house in the village of Imam Gharbi, some 70km south of Mosul, Iraq, on October 13, 2016.
The house was destroyed by Islamic State, when they took control of the village in 2014. (Oxfam: Sam Tarling )
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Children run beside military vehicles passing by in the village of Imam Gharbi, some 70km south of Mosul, Iraq. October 13, 2016. (Oxfam: Sam Tarling )
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Smoke from burning oil fields in Al Qarrayah fills the sky near the village of Imam Gharbi, some 70km south of Mosul, Iraq, on October 13, 2016. (Oxfam: Sam Tarling)
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Children watch military vehicles pass by in the village of Imam Gharbi, some 70km south of Mosul, Iraq, on October 13, 2016. (Oxfam: Sam Tarling )
Gallery:
Reclaiming Mosul
Reuters/ABC
Topics:
unrest-conflict-and-war,
world-politics,
iraq