IS expel residents to defend river bank in Mosul
MOSUL, Iraq: The Islamic State group expelled civilians from their homes along the Tigris on Mosul’s west bank, apparently bracing for a cross- river attack on their bastion by Iraqi forces, residents said Monday.
“The group forced us to leave our homes without allowing us to take our belongings,” a resident of Al-Maidan, a neighbourhood on the city’s jihadist-held west bank, told AFP.
“It deployed gun positions and posted snipers on roofs and at windows,” the resident said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal by the IS gunmen ruling his neighbourhood.
“We were forced to leave the area because it will become a battlefield and so we moved in with relatives in other parts of the city,” he said.
Iraqiforces have allbutcompleted their reconquest of Mosul’s east bank and commanders are turning their sights to the western side of the city, which is expected to see bitter street battles.
The Joint Operations Command coordinating the fight against IS said on Monday that federal forces moved into Rashidiyah, an area on the northern edge and east bank of Mosul still held by IS.
Sufian al-Mashhadani, a civil society activist from Mosul, confirmed that the jihadist organisation had deployed fighters in buildings along the west bank’s river front.
“Daesh prevented the inhabitants and owners of those homes and shops from taking their belongings and their food, claiming those were now the property of the mujahideen ( holy warriors),” he said.
All the bridges above the Tigris in central Mosul have been either bombed by IS or dropped in air strikes by the US-led coalition.
Mosul residents who lived on the eastern side but owned property or businesses on the west bank have seen their homes and shops seized by IS in recent days, said Abdulkarim al- Obeidi, another civil activist.
He said others have been expelled on the grounds that they did not have valid permits and licences. — AFP