Daesh men ‘shave beards’ as pressure builds on Mosul

KHAZIR, Iraq: Daesh group fighters were shaving their beards and changing hideouts in Mosul, residents said, as Iraqi forces moved ever closer to the city Wednesday and civilians fled in growing numbers.

Reached by AFP inside Mosul, several residents said the extremists seemed to be preparing for an assault after recent advances on the eastern front brought elite Iraqi forces to within five km of city limits.

“I saw some Daesh members and they looked completely different from the last time I saw them,” said a resident of eastern Mosul who gave his name as Abu Saif.

“They had trimmed their beards and changed their clothes,” the former businessman said. “They must be scared... they are also probably preparing to escape the city.”

Residents and military officials said many fighters had relocated from eastern Mosul to their traditional bastions on the western bank of the Tigris river, closer to escape routes to Syria.

The sounds of fighting on the northern and eastern fronts of the Mosul offensive could now be heard inside the city, residents said, and US-led coalition aircraft were flying lower over the city than usual.

An Iraqi minister said Wednesday that more than 3,300 civilians fleeing the fighting had sought help from the government the day before, the most for a single day so far.

There was “a big wave of displaced people that is considered the greatest number since the start of the military operation to liberate Nineveh province,” Displacement and Migration Minister Jassem Mohammed Al-Jaff said in a statement.