Iraqi rescuers in perilous search for Mosul missing
MOSUL, Iraq: With snipers lurking on rooftops and bombs hidden in the rubble, rescue workers are risking their lives in a desperate search for civilians buried during the battle for Iraq’s Mosul.
Overwhelmed by a blazing sun and an unfathomable grief, Abdulrahman Mohammed and his brother Ammar smoke cigarettes in front of a digger as the workers clear through a mountain of debris in a cloud of dust.
The bodies of their brother Ahmed and his family, who disappeared while fleeing fierce fighting between Iraqi forces and jihadists in west Mosul, are believed to be trapped underneath.
After eliminating the last snipers of the Islamic State group lying in wait nearby, security forces on Tuesday allowed rescuers to tackle the debris.
But after such a long wait, there is little hope of finding survivors without a miracle.
“They’ve been buried for about three weeks, a whole family. It’s a tragedy,” Ammar says.
Abdulrahman thinks it is still possible that Ahmed and his family might have left the house before the bombardment.
“Our only hope is that we don’t find them here,” he says.
On June 6, the Iraqi army advanced inside the Zanjili district, where many civilians were trapped in their homes by order of IS.
Exhausted and hungry, some seized the chance to try to escape, including Ahmed, his wife and their six children.
But the family saw IS fighters coming and “took refuge with about 30 other civilians in the basement of a neighbouring house,” says Abdulrahman.
Inside, the group was desperately thirsty. A man volunteered to fetch water. On the way, a sniper’s bullet went through his cheek. Wounded, he did not return.
Minutes later, the house was hit by aerial bombardment that people in the neighbourhood blamed on the US-led coalition supporting Iraqi troops on the ground against the jihadists.
“Maybe they made a mistake with the house or they bombed it because there were IS snipers on the roof,” Abdulrahman says.