Mosul advance slows as troops regroup
Iraqi troops fired at positions held by Isis ( Islamic State) in and around the northern city of Mosul yesterday but did not advance as they regrouped and cleared neighbourhoods once occupied by the extremists, military officials said.
Troops are screening residents fleeing from Mosul, searching for any Isis militants trying to sneak out among the more than 34,000 civilians fleeing to displacement camps and host communities in nearby provinces.
Amnesty International reported allegations against security forces of arbitrary detention, forced disappearances and ill- treatment of prisoners, including an account that up to six people were “extrajudicially executed” in late last month over suspected ties to Isis.
The London- based rights organisation said the alleged killings took place near the area of Shura and Qayara outside Mosul, and it urged the Government to investigate.
Since the offensive to retake Iraq’s second- largest city began on October 17, the Shia- led Government has tried to prevent revenge attacks against the mainly Sunni residents of Mosul and surrounding areas. State- sanctioned Shia militias and Kurdish forces say they won’t enter the city, and the Gov- ernment has vowed to investigate any human rights violations and hold people accountable.
Late last month, an Iraqi manning a checkpoint south of Mosul with soldiers, Federal Police and local militiamen told the Associated Press that he personally killed two men he said he knew to be Isis militants because he saw them commit crimes. The AP could not independently confirm his account.
A group of soldiers at the checkpoint also told AP they had heard reports of suspected Isis fighters being beaten and killed by security forces. One private said the alleged abuses were supposedly carried out by local tribal and militia fighters in apparent revenge attacks.
Iraqi troops are converging from several fronts on Mosul, the secondlargest city and the last major Isis holdout in Iraq. Kurdish peshmerga forces are holding a line north of the city, while Iraqi army and militarised police units approach from the south, and government- sanctioned Shia militias are guarding western approaches.
The offensive has slowed recently as the special forces — the troops that have advanced the farthest — push into more densely populated areas of eastern Mosul.