Iraqi police commandos have captured two neighborhoods in west Mosul on Sunday amid fierce clashes with Islamic State militants. The advance is ongoing amid UN concerns that the assault could force up to 400,000 civilians to flee, if they manage it.
RUPTLY’s new footage from Mosul shows displaced residents from the western Maamoun district arriving at the government-controlled al-Jadaa camp in Mosul, Sunday, as Iraqi forces push deeper into the city.
About 1,000 civilians, predominantly women and children, left Mosul on Saturday and were taken to humanitarian camps located to the south of the city, according to Reuters.
The Tayaran neighborhood is now under the “full control” of Iraqi forces, Maj-Gen. Haider al-Maturi said Sunday, according to AP. IS militants deployed at least 10 suicide car bombs, but only one of them reached its target. Two policeman were killed and five were wounded, al-Maturi said.Two militants, one of Iraqi decent and one foreigner who speaks Russian, were arrested.
The other neighborhood, Mamun, was “fully liberated” as well, Brig-Gen. Haider Fadhil said, adding that 15 suicide car bombs were deployed, but none of them hit the troops.
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“We are clearing [the neighborhood] up and beefing up fortifications,” he added. Nearly 3,000 people fled Mamun on Sunday, Iraqi special forces Brig-Gen. Salam Hashed said. Some 2,500 civilians fled the previous day.
Elisabeth Koek, advocacy and information adviser at the Norwegian Refugee Council in Iraq, told RT that civilians living in the old city are “at immediate risk.”
“The Iraqi security forces will have to take every precaution for civilian lives and civilian infrastructure, which means that we would plead that no heavy artillery is used, no heavy mortars are used,” Koek noted, also saying that civilians’ safety must be prioritized.