Jihadists snaring starving civilians in Mosul

JIHADISTS preparing for a desperate last stand in Mosul are booby-trapping homes with civilians inside and welding doors shut on starving families to prevent the population from fleeing.

Iraqi forces are closing in fast on the Old City and its narrow streets, where the Islamic State group is expected to focus its significantly depleted military capabilities.

The most violent group in modern jihad has repeatedly resorted to human shields to cover its movements, but in Mosul the jihadists appear to be taking the tactic to new levels.

“Daesh came to our house and welded the door. They gave us a small amount of water and a white cloth and said: ‘Here’s a shroud for you’,” one resident said.

The woman sent a voice message to a relative living in the liberated eastern side of Mosul, saying she was trapped in her own house with her husband, her four children and no food.

Resources were already scarce when the huge government offensive to wrest back Mosul from the IS was launched in October.

After more than six months of fighting, the living conditions of residents of the last neighbourhoods the IS still holds are beyond dire.

A 35-year-old man who lives in the Old City of west Mosul said the IS was desperate to keep the population from running away.

“When they suspect a family of intending to escape to the security forces, they lock them in,” he said.

“In some cases they weld the doors to be sure.”

Houses in Mosul often have a single door onto the street. An estimated 250 000 people were still trapped in the Old City and the handful of other areas that remain under IS control.

Another method residents say the IS has used to prevent a civilian exodus is booby-trapping.

“The Daesh gangs are booby-trapping houses with people inside them,” Major-General Thamer Abu Turab said.

“We found eight such houses, where our ordnance disposal teams were able to defuse the devices and get the families out,” he said.