Locals take bloody revenge against Isis
IRAQ: The mutilated bodies of Islamic State fighters were still strewn on the ground of the northern Iraqi town of al-Hud yesterday. One was burned. Another’s face was flattened by abuse.
Iraqi troops on the march toward Mosul moved into al-Hud a day earlier and declared it liberated. But they found residents had already risen up and killed many of the militants in the town.
With the offensive to recapture Mosul in its third day, Iraqi forces are fighting to retake the towns and villages that dot the plains and line the Tigris River leading to the city. At times, they’ve met fierce resistance, with the militants sending explosives-packed vehicles careening toward the troops’ positions.
The area has been under control of the militants since the summer of 2014, when Isis fighters captured Mosul and much of the north in a lightning advance. In alHud, a Sunni Arab town on the Tigris, residents saw their chance to get rid of them.
On Tuesday, a man paraded through town with an Iraqi flag in a show of defiance, residents said. Isis fighters shot and killed him. A group of residents gathered in a shop, news spread among the hundreds of people in the town, and a crowd turned on the militants.
One resident, Ahmed Mohammed, said he and others shot a militant who was hiding by an outhouse behind a shop. ‘‘That didn’t work. Then one of our guys came and threw a grenade on him from the top,’’ he said.
Gasim Mohammed said his father was killed in the uprising against the militants. He kicked the head of one of the bodies.
‘‘This one smells like a dog,’’ he said. ‘‘I hate them. Anyone I catch, I’ll drink his blood. Even if it’s a child,’’ he said.
It was not clear how many militants had been in the village or how many were killed.
Yesterday, residents were celebrating. Children ran toward an Iraqi military convoy waving peace signs while others threw stones at the bodies of the dead Isis fighters. Residents fired celebratory rounds into the air and cars long the main road still flew white flags of surrender.
At Qayyara air base, near alHud, a senior Iraqi general called on Isis fighters in Mosul to surrender. Lieutenant General Talib Shaghati said up to 6000 Isis fighters are in the city.
East of Mosul, troops have moved about a kilometre from Hamdaniyah, a historically Christian town to the east of Mosul. -AP