ISIL uses 100,000 as human shields
Snipers in Mosul’s Old City fire from roofs at families trying to flee as US-backed Iraqi troops advance, UN agency says
GENEVA // About 100,000 civilians are trapped behind ISIL lines in Mosul, the United Nations refugee agency said yesterday.
ISIL snipers are shooting at families trying to flee by boat across the Tigris River or on foot, the UNHCR said, as a US-backed offensive to recapture the Iraqi city enters its ninth month.
“These civilians are basically held as human shields in the Old City,” the UNHCR’s Iraq representative Bruno Geddo said.
“There is hardly any food, water, electricity, fuel. These civilians are living in an increasingly worsening situation of penury and panic because they are surrounded by fighting.”
Iraqi government forces have the militants besieged in Mosul’s historic district.
The offensive to retake Mosul, ISIL’s self - styled capital in Iraq, started on October 17 with air and ground support from a USled international coalition.
Iraqi government forces regained eastern Mosul in January, then a month later began the offensive across the river on the western side, which includes the Old City.
The Old City “is a very dense labyrinth, a maze of narrow alleyways where fighting will have to be done on foot, house by house”, Mr Geddo said.
“ISIL snipers continue to aim at people trying to flee because there is this long-standing pol- icy of executing people trying to flee the territory of the caliphate.”
The fall of Mosul would, in effect, mark the end of the Iraqi half of the “caliphate” , which also covers parts of Syria.
About 200,000 people were estimated to be trapped behind ISIL lines in Mosul last month, but the number has declined as government forces have pushed further into the city.
About 800,000 people, more than a third of the pre-war population of the northern Iraqi city, have fled, seeking refuge with friends and relatives or in camps. The UNHCR has provided many with shelter, food and other necessities.
Mr Geddo also voiced concern about collective punishment of families whose relatives may have been ISIL fighters.
“Collective punishment in a deeply tribal society means that you see evictions, destruction of property and confiscation of property for families perceived as being associated with ISIL because one family member might have been having that link,” he said.
“This is a very critical point for the future of Iraq.
“Because it is essential to uphold the rule of law, to pursue those who committed crimes through the court system, the judicial system, rather than applying tribal custom.”