Isis set oil wells alight before fleeing strategic town
The skies above the small northern Iraqi town of Qayara are black with smoke and ash rains down from around a half dozen oil wells that Islamic State group fighters set ablaze as Iraqi troops moved in to retake the town last week.
The apocalyptic scene underscores the sort of destruction the militants are likely to wreak as Iraqi forces move toward Mosul, the biggest prize still held by Isis in Iraq.
Unlike previous ground assaults against Isis in Iraq that left cities and villages emptied of civilians, thousands of civilians remained in Qayara as militants quickly folded up and fled, a sign of weakening morale and damaged supply lines, commanders say.
That means residents did not join the ranks of hundreds of thou- sands of people displaced by recent fighting with Isis and now languishing in camps.
But the situation for the 9000 civilians still in Qayara is precarious. The battle left the town without electricity and little running water, and the aid groups who normally help the displaced say they cannot deliver aid to people so close to frontline fighting.
Najim al-Jobori, the commander of military operations in Nineveh Province where Qayara and Mosul are located, said Iraqi forces are increasingly trying to keep civilians in place while pushing Isis fighters out.
The Qayara operation, he said, raises his hopes that the approach on Mosul will become increasingly easier as morale among Isis fighters crumbles
He said that previously when an air strike hit an Isis unit, the survivors would stay and keep fighting. ‘‘But now, you never see that anymore, they all just run.’’
Hundreds of civilians poured out into Qayara’s main street as a convoy of Iraqi officials pulled into the town just days after the military retook it.
Some children rushed to cheer on the Iraqi army Humvees, other families peered cautiously from behind garden gates in the town, which before 2011 had a population of 79,000.