Iraqi forces launch operation to seize last IS enclave in Mosul
People eating plants as food prices up by 10 times; 200,000 expected to flee
coincides with the start of Ramadhan.
Its prime targets is the medieval Grand al Nuri Mosque and its landmark leaning minaret where IS’s black flag has been flying since mid 2014.
The forces hope to capture in the next few days the mosque where Baghdadi revealed himself to the world and announced the “caliphate” that also spans part of Syria.
Residents in the Old City sounded desperate in telephone interviews made over the past few days.
“We’re waiting for death at any moment, either by bombing or starving,” one said, asking not to be identified for his own safety. “Adults eat one meal a day, either flour or lentil soup.”
The United Nations expressed “deep concern” for the hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped behind IS lines, in a statement on Saturday from the organisation’s undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs, Stephen O’Brien.
“Although the UN is not present in the areas where fighting is occurring, we have received very disturbing reports of families being shut inside booby-trapped homes and of children being deliberately targeted by snipers,” he said.
The militants have laid sheets of corrugated metal over pebbles in the alleys as an early warning system, residents said.
The grinding noise produced by treading on it would alert them to any troop movements or civilians trying to escape.
The United Nations last week said up to 200,000 more people could flee Mosul as fighting moves to the Old City.
Residents said millet, usually used as bird feed, is being baked like rice as food prices increased ten fold.
People were seen collecting wild mallow plants in abandoned lots and also eating mulberry leaves and other types of plants.
About 700,000 people, about a third of the pre-war city’s population, have already fled, seeking refuge either with friends and relatives or in camps.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al Abadi had initially hoped Mosul would be retaken by the end of 2016.
The insurgents are also retreating in Syria, mainly in the face US-backed Kurdish-led forces.