MOSUL –
Iraqi armed forces have Saturday routes opened allowing hundreds of citizens from the Old City of Mosul were able to escape. Fighters of the terrorist organisation Islamic State to defend the remnants of the unofficial capital of the caliphate, that IS, three years ago, exclaimed.
Especially in urban warfare trained units pulling along two perpendicular to one another, roads on to the heart of the old city centre, to the remaining jihadists in four tricks to isolate. The troops need the terrain from house to house on the extremists to conquer. The streets are too narrow for armored vehicles, the Iraqi units get air support from helicopters.
In the area would still be 100,000 civilians are trapped. According to Lise Grande, the humanitarian coordinator of the United Nations in Iraq, there are reports that she IS as human shield to be used.
Behind the slow progress with the Iraqi armed forces were escape routes. Through one of them knew on Saturday in a time frame of twenty minutes at least one hundred citizens in an area to the west of the city that is in the hands of government forces. Among them were families with injured and malnourished children.
The government wants to Mosul in the coming week completely free. According to military analysts, the regeringscampagne vaart won after Wednesday itself the al-Nuri mosque blown up. This kept the army are still in the 850-year-old house of worship, where IS-leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, on July 4, 2014 the caliphate exclamation, to spare. According to American and Iraqi officials, al-Baghdadi shortly after the offensive on Mosul began left town.