Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

Mosul Battles Turn into ‘War of Alleyways’ | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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An Iraqi special forces soldier fires at a drone operated by ISIS militants in Mosul. Photograph: Goran Tomasevic/Reuters


Mosul- Iraqi forces reached on Sunday the outskirts of Mosul’s old city center after pushing into some neighborhoods in West Mosul, which turned their battle with the ISIS terrorist organization into a “war of alleyways.”

On Sunday, Iraqi security forces fought ISIS members in the neighborhoods of Dawassa, Dindan and Nabi Sheeth, which are alleyways where tanks and other military vehicles cannot enter.

Federal Police chief, Lt. Gen. Shaker Jawdat told Asharq Al-Awsat that his forces “killed dozens of militants from ISIS and destroyed four car bombs and six sniper positions.”

Jawdat said the troops were now meters away from the government complex, adding that retaking that area could mean “an 80 percent strategic and moral victory in the west Mosul battles.”

Amid the intense fighting, Mosul families fled towards Iraqi camps. In the past few days, about 10,000 displaced people have arrived each day to the camps of Hammam Al-Alil, Hajj Ali and the Qayyarah Airstrip.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of displacement and migration said Sunday that since last Friday, more than 8,000 displaced people arrived from south Mosul to its east to the camps of Al Khazar and Hassan Sham.

The Iraqi people suffer amid the absence of any assistance or aid offered by the Iraqi government and the Ministry of Displacement and Migration, which fail to provide basic daily necessities such as medicine or food.

Nida’ al-Hamadani, an Iraqi displaced woman who had arrived a few days ago at Al Khazar camp, told Asharq Al-Awsat on Sunday: “Barzani Charity Foundation is the only organization that has offered us food, fuel and blankets. We have met no one from the Iraqi ministry of displacement. We were moved here in the cars of the Iraqi transportation ministry.”

Jassem Mohammed al-Jaff, the minister of displacement and migration, said on Sunday that since the start of the military operation to liberate the west side of the city, his ministry’s teams received more than 57,000 displaced people and provided them with aid, food and assistance.