ISIS attacks civilians with chemical weapons
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Islamic State militants used chemical weapons in their current battles with Iraqi forces around western Mosul’s Old City, their last stronghold in the region, causing civilian injuries, a news report said Wednesday.
Russian news agency Sputnik said the chemical attack on Zanjili district caused injuries to 13 civilians, including women and children, saying it was the ninth time IS militants prove their use of chemical warfare since operations launched by the Iraqi government in October to retake Mosul.
The agency said the latest attack was carried out with four mortar missiles laden with poisonous chlorine, adding that medical tests verified the substance’s use.
The report did not mention an exact timing of the reported attack, but instances of chemical weapons use have been recurrently reported since an inventory of chemical arms was discovered by Iraqi forces inside laboratories of Mosul University in the eastern side of Mosul, which government troops took over in January.
The United Nations had previously confirmed cases of civilians being treated for symptoms of what seemed to be chemical agents.
Iraqi government forces are currently battling IS out of the a handful of districts around the Old City, the medieval neighborhood where the group’s supreme leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, declared the establishment of the group’s rule in Iraq and Syria in 2014.
Iraqi forces uncover ISIS prisons in Mosul
Fotos at the link
Mosul (Reuters) Islamic State built prison cells inside an ordinary villa in Mosul as part of the group’s tactic of boosting the safety of its jails and security centers by concealing them among regular houses.
Despite their outward appearance, the jails had the regular attributes of state-run detention centers where inmates have their documents and belongings taken away when they arrive, to be given back to them if and when they are released.
A camera hanging in one cell where men were kept was linked to the guards’ office. “This is to keep the prisoners subdued,” said the Iraqi military intelligence officer showing the villa to journalists.
He said former members of the Iraqi armed forces were kept in this cell, along with Yazidis, the religious community who suffered the most under Islamic State because the hardline group considered them devil worshippers.
“Here they kept ‘violators'” of their laws, he said. “But they are the real violators” in the eyes of Iraqi law, he added.
Iraqi forces stop suicide bombing attack in Mosul
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi Ministry of Interior announced, on Wednesday, foiling a suicide attack against civilians in western Mosul.
Spokesman for the Ministry of Interior said in a statement that the 16th brigade of Nineveh Police, Nineveh Intelligence Directorate and Counter-Terrorism brigade managed to foil a suicide attack, launched by a suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt, and killed the terrorist before blowing up himself in al-Noor neighborhood, in eastern Mosul.
The suicide bomber was planning to blow up himself among civilians in the neighborhood, the statement added.
Noteworthy, joint security forces continue liberating the city of Mosul from the Islamic State grip, after Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced launching an assault to liberate Nineveh in 17 October 2016.