3 kidz die in refugee crush in Kirkuk
Hawija (IraqiNews.com) Three children died Tuesday due to food and medicine shortages as refugee convoys from Kirkuk’s Islamic State stronghold town of Hawija were stranded outside the province’s center.
A local source at Kirkuk’s municipal council told Alsumaria News that the three children died due to the lack of foodstuff and medicine supplies for 600 refugees who fled Hawija to the province. He said the refugees were held at the Khaled crossing for ten days.
The source said keeping the families outside could endanger their lives.
Since taking over large areas of Iraq in 2014 to proclaim an “Islamic Caliphate”, Islamic State militants held several towns and regions in southwestern Kirkuk, most notably Hawija, where thousands of civilians fled to refugee camps while others have been executed for either attempting to escape or collaborating with security.
Security campaigns against IS and the group’s bloody system of governance have displaced more than 400.000 since October, and more than four million have been displaced since IS emerged in 2014 according to the government.
The Iraqi government has not yet launched any security campaigns to retake IS-held towns of Hawija, but it is expected to do so after it eliminates militants from Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city and the Islamic Stat where a security offensive has been running since October.
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ISIS de-ears battlefield deserters
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) The Islamic State is now punishing members who escape battles with Iraqi troops in Mosul by cutting their ears, local sources in Nineveh said Tuesday.
Speaking to Alsumaria News, the source said the group cut on Tuesday one ear of each of 33 members who had fled the battlefield. They were imprisoned before the punishment was carried out at a local hospital, the source added.
“The leadership of the extremist group threatened to cut both ears if escapes are repeated,” said the source, asking not to be named.
The source said it was significant that the group did not execute the delinquent members as it had used to do since operations to retake Mosul launched in October, adding that the new punishment was apparently adopted as the group was shrinking in numbers.
Iraqi government troops, backed by a U.S.-led coalition and paramilitary forces, recaptured eastern Mosul in January after three months of fighting, and launched a renewed offensive in February to retake the western region.
The Joint Operations Command said Tuesday IS, at present, is deployed at only 6.8 percent of territory of Iraq.
News about internal divisions within IS ranks, as well as executions of slack fighters have been recurrent.
3 ISIS Turbans die in fratricide incident
A statement by Kurdistan’s Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) said that the Islamic State extremists in Hawija shot two members of the group including Mahmoud abdullah Hussein Sultan and Mostafa Taha Menheih.
The militants, according to the statement, killed the two members for killing a third member called Abu Omar, who owns a foreign exchange bureau in Hawija.
The reason behind killing the third member was not declared.
Since taking over large areas of Iraq in 2014 to proclaim an “Islamic Caliphate”, Islamic State militants held several towns and regions in southwestern Kirkuk, most notably the strategic town of Hawija. Iraqi authorities postponed an operation to liberate the town last year, instead they moved onto central Mosul.
The Iraqi government is expected to launch an offensive to retake IS-occupied areas in Kirkuk once it eliminates militants from Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city and the Islamic State where a security offensive has been running since October.
where thousands of civilians fled to refugee camps while others have been executed for either attempting to escape or collaborating with security.
3 ISIS Turbans die in Anbar revolt
The peasants are revolting
Rawa (IraqiNews.com) Three Islamic State members were killed in Anbar on Wednesday when gunmen targeted their gathering at one of the group’s pockets at the west of the province, according to a security source.
Aljournal News website quoted the source saying that the attack took place at the center of the town of Rawa, an Islamic State stronghold west of Anbar. Three IS militants were killed and a gun-supplied pickup truck.
According to the source, intelligence information confirmed that the attackers were local civilians indignant towards the group’s rule.
Islamic State has maintained control over the towns of Annah, Rawa and Qaim since the group emerged in 2014 to proclaim a self-styled ‘Islamic State”.
There has not been an officially-declared military campaign to free IS-held regions west of Anbar, but the province’s military command launched a brief assault early January that managed to recapture some western villages before stopping again.
Local officials believe Islamic State is holding thousands in those regions to use them as human shields against any future security offensive.
The Iraqi government is expected to aim at IS havens in Anbar once it is finished with eliminating the group from Mosul, its biggest bastion in Iraq.
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