Number of people displaced from Mosul exceeds 300,000

More than 300,000 people have fled Mosul since the start of the US-backed campaign to dislodge Islamic State from the northern Iraqi city in October, the United Nations said yesterday.

The United Nations’ International Organisation for Migration estimates the number of people currently displaced to be 302,400, the office of the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq said in a statement.

Iraqi forces, backed by a US-led coalition, have taken most districts of Mosul, Islamic State’s last major stronghold in Iraq and the city where the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, declared a caliphate nearly three years ago.

They are now battling to take the northwestern part from Islamic State but the civilian death toll has mounted in the densely populated Old City, where the militants are dug in amongst residents.

More people are expected to flee the fighting and camps for the displaced north and east of Mosul are expanding, the UN statement said. — Reuters

A pilot found drunk in the cockpit of a Boeing 737 jetliner he was supposed to fly on New Year’s eve was sentenced Monday to nearly seven months in prison.

Miroslav Gronych, 37, pleaded guilty to being impaired while in control of an aircraft.

A court official told AFP he was handed a 219- day jail sentence, and was prohibited from operating an aircraft for one year after he leaves prison.

The Slovakian pilot had been found drunk shortly before 7am (1200 GMT) on Dec 31, prior to a Sunwing flight from Calgary, Alberta to Cancun Mexico with 99 passengers onboard. — AFP