- Isis surrenders Iraqi hideout of leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
Around 100,000 minors remain trapped in “extremely dangerous”area of Mosul which is controlled by Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIS) and are being used as human shields and forced to fight on behalf of Islamic State terrorists.
“An estimated 100,000 girls and boys remain in extremely dangerous conditions in the old city and other areas of west Mosul,” Russia Today quoted Peter Hawkins, the United Nations Children`s Fund (UNICEF) Representative in Iraq, as saying.
“We are receiving alarming reports of civilians including several children being killed in west Mosul,” Hawkins said in a statement.
Operations to recapture western Mosul were launched on February 19 after the eastern section of Iraq`s second largest city was liberated in January.
As Iraqi forces make the final push to retake the city, at least 200,000 civilians remain in danger.
Iraqi forces began a push towards the medieval old city in late April.
Their advance has been slow due fierce urban combat and the use of civilians by Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) fighters as human shields.
While US-backed Iraqi troops have forced the last of ISIS hardened fighters into three neighborhoods – Zanjili, al-Sihha and al-Shefa – around the old city remain under terrorist control.
“In some cases, the minors have been forced to fight on behalf of Islamic State terrorists,” Hawkins noted, adding that others are “being killed, injured and used as human shields”.
To spare the lives of innocent children and other civilians still trapped under the yoke of IS, UNICEF has called on all involved in the battle to spare hospitals and other civilian infrastructure.
“Many are caught in the crossfire and hospitals and other medical facilities have reportedly come under attack,” Hawkins noted.
“Attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure including hospitals, clinics, schools, homes and water systems should stop immediately.”
Iraqi troops along with coalition forces are backed by US air strikes began the battle for Islamic State`s main stronghold in the country in October 2016.
In the meantime, Islamic State has surrendered the key town of Baaj in north-west Iraq, a known hideout of the terrorist group’s leader which had been under Islamist militants’ control throughout 14 years of war and insurgency.
The few remaining Isis fighters fled the town on Saturday night, allowing Shia militia forces to enter unopposed.
A statement from the Popular Mobilisation Front, an umbrella organisation for pro-government paramilitaries that is dominated by Iran-backed Shia militias, announced the “total liberation” of the Baaj district and declared: “The Iraqi flag has been hoisted above its buildings.”
Throughout Sunday, the Front’s fighters raised Iraqi flags and banners where Isis flags had flown since mid-2014, securing a victory that resonates far beyond the formerly untamed corner of north-west Iraq.
Social media posts hailed the victory as one of the most symbolic of its kind, alongside the successful battles to win back Falluja, Tikrit, Ramadi and most of Mosul.
Isis fighters who remain in western Mosul have barricaded themselves in the old city district and have little chance of escape.
The withdrawal leaves just that pocket of Mosul and the town of Bukamal as the only urban centres in Iraq, or on the Syrian border, with a significant Isis presence. The fight to reclaim lands seized by Isis is now expected to shift focus to Syria, where the next, and potentially final, leg of the campaign to eradicate the group’s presence is intensifying.
A Guardian source who saw Isis’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in Bukamal earlier this year described him as thin and stooped. The source said Baghdadi was travelling with a small security detail in a convoy of four cars and spent only minutes in public before being escorted away.
The crumbling of the Isis caliphate has also renewed focus on finding Baghdadi, who is known to have spent large parts of the past three years in Baaj under the protection of tribes that had been loyal to the cause of Islamic State and its earlier incarnations. Baghdadi has also been sighted in Raqqa, the de facto capital of the Isis caliphate in Syria.
Baaj has become increasingly important to Iranian efforts to influence what emerges from the war against Isis. A statement claiming the capture of the town came from Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a prominent Shia paramilitary leader with extensive ties to Iran.
Last month he, together with the Iranian general Qassem Suleimani, directed Shia paramilitary forces to capture Baaj as a crucial part of a land corridor that Iran has been trying to establish across Iraq and Syria.
Bukamal is expected to be a new focus of both Iranian and US efforts. At the same time, US-backed Kurdish troops are now within sight of Raqqa on three sides of the city. Kurdish groups say the battle to retake the city is likely to start sometime this month.
“This is all coming to a head now,” said a senior regional diplomat. “But not in a coordinated way at all. Everyone has their own agenda. There is no common purpose here. And there sure as hell isn’t a strategy.”
Zee with additional report from Guardian
