Father describes how bombs killed his child in Iraqi city

Residents driven out as troops clash with Islamic State

MOSUL: From a distance, the exhausted Iraqis fleeing parts of Mosul which are controlled by Islamic State appeared to be pushing their worldly possessions on handcarts.

But it became clear their cargo was far more precious, and more tragic. One man lifted a grubby, fluffy blanket to reveal the dust and blood-covered body of a child, one of several piled on the cart.

“This is my son. He is gone,” he said, describing how his family’s home had been hit by an air strike. Iraqi helicopters have been pounding west Mosul with missiles as its troops push into Islamic State’s last holdout in Iraq.

“These were in their homes and the air strikes killed them,” the man said, showing other small bodies, cut by shrapnel or debris, on the cart.

He said the strike had happened close to Mosul’s train station, an area the family had only just moved to after fleeing their home in the Wadi Hajjar neighbourhood, where fighting had become too intense.

Other families trekking down the road towards buses sent to take civilians to camps used similar carts to transport elderly relatives.

They will join the 255 000 people displaced from Mosul and surrounds since October, when the US- backed push against Islamic State began – creating a huge challenge for aid agencies delivering food and shelter to people who have known years of suffering.

Iraqi forces battling Islamic State in Mosul yesterday edged into the Old City and spread around the Nuri Mosque, where Islamic State’s black jihadist flag hangs from a leaning minaret, trying to seal off a main road to prevent militants sending in suicide bombers to attack their positions as occurred earlier this week.

Troops have been meeting fierce resistance as militants retreat into the Old City.

Losing Mosul would be a huge blow to Islamic State. It has served as the group’s de facto capital since its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi announced his caliphate spanning Iraq and Syria from the Nuri Mosque in July 2014.

Islamic State forces swept in to control a third of Iraq when the army abandoned its positions and fled two years ago. The Iraqi government says its security forces have since been rebuilt and have recaptured lost ground.

A US-led coalition has been providing air strike support, intelligence and advisers on the ground.

US officials have estimated about 2 000 fighters remain inside the city. – Reuters

PICTURE: REUTERS Displaced people, who fled their homes during a battle between Iraqi forces and Islamic State militants, carry their belongings in Mosul, Iraq, yesterday.