ISIS abducts 850 in Kirkuk for use as human shields
Hawija (IraqiNews.com) Islamic State militants have evacuated 850 civilians and burned their residences at the group’s main stronghold in Kirkuk to use them as future human shields, said a tribal leader.
Anwar al-Assi, who leads a tribal force combating Islamic State militants in Hawija, said in a press statement on Wednesday that Islamic State members transferred the civilians to a main playfield preparing to use them as human shields in case security forces charge at the town.
Assi said he had received information that IS executed 36 men in two days, but did not give more details about the reason or location of the execution.
IS members have been in control over Hawija, southwest of Kirkuk, since 2014, when the group came to the scene, took over several Iraqi regions and proclaimed an Islamic “caliphate”.
Iraqi government forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition and paramilitary troops, launched an offensive in October to retake the city of Mosul, Islamic State’s largest urban stronghold in Iraq. The Iraqi government is planning to aim at other IS havens across Iraq after Mosul.
Local officials in Hawija have repeatedly urged the government to hasten with the liberation of their town.
Since taking over Iraqi regions, Islamic State members have executed dozens of civilians, security members and many of its own members for various reasons ranging from collaboration with security forces to attempting to flee areas under the group’s control, most notably Hawija.
ISIS executing civilians in Mosul
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Islamic State militants executed tens of civilians who tried to flee their grip on Wednesday, while security strikes killed 16 others, according to local residents who spoke as operations against the militant group approach final stages.
Shafaaq News website quoted locals saying Islamic State militants had executed seven members of the same family earlier on Wednesday. They were attempting to flee their home in Mashahda region towards areas held by Iraqi security troops, the sources said.
Alforat.info quoted Cap. Mohamed al-Jeheishi, from Nineveh police, saying intelligence information revealed that 47 people, mainly women, children and elders, were caught by the group trying to flee al-Shefa district towards security-controlled areas before they were executed at Dourat Qassem.
It is not clear whether both incidents were related.
Meanwhile, Shafaaq News quoted local sources saying that more than 16 other civilians died as Iraqi forces continued to bombard Zanjili district with mortars and warplane fires.
News about IS executing civilians fo escaping their domains or collaborating with security forces have been recurrent since the government, backed by a U.S.-led coalition, launched a major offensive in October to retake Mosul from the group.
Hundreds of civilian deaths have also been blamed on Iraqi forces and coalition fighter jets. While the Iraqi government consistently denies causing civilian casualties, coalition commanders admitted recently they were behind dozens of deaths during the Mosul campaign.
Iraqi government troops regained control over eastern Mosul in January after three months of fighting. Operations for the western side of the city launched in mid February, and Iraqi generals say a few hundreds of IS fighters remain in the Old City as a last refuge.
The densely populated and narrowly structured Old City was the place where IS supreme leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared the establishment of the group’s rule in Iraq in 2014.
Iraqi forces began late April to advance towards the enclave from the northwest, having besieged it from the south for weeks to no avail.
At least 200.000 civilians are believed to remain in IS captivity in that area.
ISIS executes 9 of their own in Mosul
Tal Afar (IraqiNews.com) Islamic State militants executed on Wednesday nine of their senior comrades West of Mosul on the backdrop of defeats to Iraqi government troops and allied militias, an army officer has said.
Cap. Moataz al-Hamadani told BasNews that the nine leaders, of Arab and Western nationalities, were executed at the center of Tal Afar town, a major Islamic State bastion west of Mosul and near the borders with Syria (70 Km west of Mosul).
Hamadani quoted residents from Tal Afar saying that the executions came amid growing divisions and infighting among the group’s members which followed consecutive defeats to Iraqi security forces. He did not give details of the method of execution.
According to the officer, those executed included a Russian, a British and a Turkish, but he did not mention their names or ranks. There was also Abu Othman al-Suri, a Syrian who was the group’s mayor for Tal Afar, and Baisan Atallah, a member of an unidentified Arab nationality who was in charge of the town’s police force.
Iraqi government troops regained control over eastern Mosul in January after three months of fighting. Operations for the western side of the city launched in mid February, and Iraqi generals say a few hundreds of IS fighters remain in the Old City as a last refuge, with troops in control over more than 90 percent of territory.
Popular Mobilization Units, the paramilitary force fighting IS alongside government troops, have been clearing areas around Tal Afar since the launch of operations in October, putting the town under siege and isolating it from the Syrian borders.
ISIS prepares mosque for last stand
A member of the Iraqi rapid response forces fires a mortar shell against Islamic State militants positions in western Mosul, Iraq May 31, 2017. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis[/caption (Reuters) Islamic State militants have closed the streets around Mosul’s Grand al-Nuri Mosque, residents said, apparently in preparation for a final showdown in the battle over their last major stronghold in Iraq.
Dozens of fighters were seen by residents taking up positions in the past 48 hours around the medieval mosque, the site where Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared an Islamist caliphate in July 2014.
Islamic State’s black flag has been flying from the mosque since the militants captured Mosul and seized swathes of Iraq and Syria in the summer of 2014.
U.S.-backed Iraqi government forces retook eastern Mosul in January and began a new push on Saturday to capture the group’s remaining enclave in western Mosul, comprising of the Old City center where the mosque is located, and three adjacent districts alongside the western bank of the River Tigris.
The fall of the city would, in effect, mark the end of the Iraqi half of the self-styled caliphate. Meanwhile in Syria, Kurdish forces backed by U.S.-air strikes are beseiging Islamic State forces in the city of Raqqa, the militants’ de facto capital in that country.
Symbolic Focus
Up to 200,000 people still live in harrowing conditions behind Islamic State lines in Mosul, running low on food, water and medicine, and with difficult access to hospitals, the United Nations said on Sunday.
The Grand al-Nuri Mosque has become a symbolic focus of the campaign, with Iraqi commanders privately saying they hope to capture it during Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month which started over the weekend in Iraq.
“Daesh’s fighters know that the mosque is the most important target and they are preparing for a major battle there,” said Hisham al-Hashemi, who advises several Middle East government including Iraq’s on Islamic State affairs.
But a battle in or near the mosque would put the building and its famed leaning minaret at risk, experts have said.
The minaret, several feet off the perpendicular and standing on humid soil, is particularly vulnerable as it has not been renovated since 1970. Its tilt gave the landmark its popular name – al-Hadba, or the hunchback.
The Mosul offensive, now in its eighth month, has taken much more time than expected as Islamic State is fighting in the middle of civilians and using them as human shields.
Over the past few days, the militants ordered dozens of families living in the Zanjili district to move into the Old City to prevent them from escaping toward the Iraqi forces trying to advance from the northern side, a resident said.
Government forces have been dropping leaflets over the districts telling families to flee but the intensity of the fighting has prevented people from escaping.
The militants been countering the offensive with suicide car and motorbike bombs, snipers, booby-traps and mortar fire.
About 700,000 people, about a third of the pre-war city’s population, have already fled, seeking refuge either with friends and relatives or in camps.
Mass grave found in western Mosul
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) A mass grave composed of relics of 60 civilians, including women, killed by Islamic State, was found in western Mosul,” a local source from Nineveh province has said.
“Security troops discovered a mass grave in al-Shifa district in western Mosul,” the source told AlSumaria News on Wednesday. “The grave contained relics of 60 civilians, including elderly people and 23 women who worked as employees and lawyers as their ID cards found in their possession showed.”
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source said, “IS shot the civilians dead in the head. They were transferred to forensic medicine department in Wadi Hajar to identify them and hand over their bodies to their relatives.”
Several mass graves were found in IS-held areas since the Iraqi government, backed by a U.S.-led military coalition, launched a major security offensive in October 2016 to recapture the city of Mosul, Islamic State’s largest stronghold in Iraq.
Iraqi commanders say they at least 90 percent of territories in western Mosul is under Iraqi troops control, predicting to retake the city before the end of May. Only two districts besides the Old City are under IS control.
Iraqi forces have been sweeping through northwestern neighborhoods over the past few weeks in a way to invade the strategic Old City, after finding it hard to invade from the south.
The eastern side of Mosul was retaken in January after three months of battles. Another major offensive was launched in February to recapture the western flank of the city.