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The Beatings Will Continue: Iraqi Edition
 4 civilians die in ISIS artillery attack Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) At least 19 civilians were killed and wounded on Sunday when Islamic State militants reportedly shelled areas recaptured by security forces in eastern Mosul, with mortar rounds. Iraqi news websites said militants shelled the Nabi Yunus area in eastern Mosul with mortar missiles, killing at least four and wounding 15 others. The reports added that the attack destroyed five commercial stores in the area. Nabi Yunus district, eastern Mosul. Iraqi government forces recaptured eastern Mosul in January after three months of fighting to retake the city which fell to Islamic State militants in 2014. Many fighters fled to the western strongholds and some died en route. Since then, IS launched several attacks on the recaptured areas in the east, killing several civilians and security members. The attacks were carried out with drones, suicide bombings and mortar bombardments. Iraqi forces are currently struggling to retake western Mosul in a campaign that started in February. Recent reports said hundreds of civilians died in airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition fighting IS alongside the Iraqi troops. The Iraqi command accuses US of causing civilian casualties by taking them as human shields and booby-trapping their property. The conflict in western Mosul has so far displaced more than 200.000 civilians. 61 dead found in Mosul mosque Mosul (Reuters) Iraq’s military said on Sunday that 61 bodies were recovered from a collapsed building that Islamic State had booby-trapped in west Mosul, but there was no sign the building had been hit by a coalition air strike. The military statement differed from reports by witnesses and local officials that said as many as 200 bodies had been pulled from the building after a coalition strike last week targeted IS militants and equipment in the Jadida district. What happened on March 17 remains unclear and details are difficult to confirm as Iraqi forces battle with Islamic State to recapture the densely populated parts of the western half of Mosul, the militant group’s last stronghold in Iraq. Iraqi forces on Sunday hit militant positions with helicopter strikes, and exchanged heavy gunfire and rockets around al Nuri mosque in west Mosul, where the Islamic State leader declared his caliphate nearly three years ago. One federal police officer said they had killed a militant in a suicide vest trying to infiltrate their position, and exchanged fire with two other fighters. At the north edge of Mosul, Iraqi army divisions raided and entered the Badush cement factory, to where militants had retreated, Lt. Col. Ali Jassem of the 9th armored division said. Army units are clearing villages to the north. As combat continues, the Jadida incident highlights the complexity of fighting in west Mosul, where militants hide among families, using them as shields and putting at risk as many as half a million people still caught in Islamic State-held areas. Thousands have already fled Mosul and coalition officials and Iraq’s Shi’ite-led government are wary of incidents that could alienate residents of the mainly Sunni city and fuel the kind of sectarian tensions that helped Islamic State’s rise. The U.S.-led coalition backing Iraqi forces on Saturday said it carried out a strike on Islamic State militants and equipment in the area of the reported deaths, and was investigating. It did not give figures for any casualties or details of targets. The Iraqi military command said witnesses had told troops that the building was booby-trapped and militants had forced residents inside basements to use them as shields. IS militants had also fired on troops from houses, it said. “A team of military experts from field commanders checked the building where the media reported that the house was completely destroyed. All walls were booby-trapped and there is no hole that indicates an air strike,” it said. “Sixty-one bodies were evacuated,” the statement said. A coalition air strike had hit the area at the time though there was no sign it struck that building, it said. More at the link ISIS captures kidz for use as human shields Mosul (BasNews) The Islamic State (IS) militants have reportedly taken nearly 200 children hostage in west Mosul in order to use them as human shields to resist the Iraqi forces’ advance on the IS-held areas in the city. The Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights reported that 197 children have been taken hostage by the IS militants near al-Nouri Grand Mosque in west Mosul where the Iraqi troops have closed in on the militant group. The source said the militants intend to use the children as human shields to impede the advance of the Iraqi troops. Due to the increasing number of civilian casualties, the Iraqi security forces suspended the military operations to retake western Mosul. The Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights in a statement on Saturday revealed that since the beginning of the operation on western part of Mosul, around 4000 civilians have died due to the ongoing fight between the Iraqi forces and IS extremists. Posted by: badanov 2017-03-27 |
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