Iraqi forces free hundreds of civilians in Mosul Old City battles
MOSUL: Iraqi forces opened exit routes for hundreds of civilians to flee the Old City of Mosul on Saturday as they battled to retake the quarter from Daesh militants mounting a last stand in what was the de facto capital of their selfdeclared caliphate.
US-trained urban warfare units were channeling their onslaught along two perpendicular streets that converge in the heart of the Old City, aiming to isolate the insurgents in four pockets.
A Reuters correspondent saw a young girl with facial injuries walking dazed and shocked across the front line out of the heavily populated district with a group of neighbors. All her family was killed when their house collapsed, they said.
Helicopter gunships were assisting the ground thrust, firing at insurgent emplacements in the Old City, a Reuters correspondent reported from a location near the front lines.
The government advance was carving out escape corridors for civilians marooned behind Daesh lines.
There was a steady trickle of fleeing families on Saturday, some with injured and malnourished children. “My baby only had bread and water for the past eight days,” one mother said.
At least 100 civilians reached the safety of a government-held area west of the Old City in one 20-minute period, tired, scared and hungry. Soldiers gave them food and water.