MOSUL // Iraqi troops laid siege to the Al Zohour neighbourhood of Mosul on Sunday, about eight kilometres from the city centre, while fortifying areas already retaken from ISIL.
The army’s advance has been slowed by sniper fire and suicide bombings, as well as concern over the safety of civilians.
“The biggest hindrance to us is the civilians,” said Maj Gen Sami Al Aridi of the Iraqi special forces. “We are soldiers who are not trained to carry out humanitarian tasks.”
A few hundred civilians emerged from rubble-strewn front-line neighbourhoods on Sunday. They included women and children, some of them carrying bags, small suitcases or waving white flags.
Mosul is still home to more than 1 million people, and ISIL fighters are using them as human shields against bombing and artillery attacks.
The government sent half a dozen trucks loaded with food aid into the recently liberated areas. Chaos broke out in one neighbourhood, where residents climbed on top of the trucks and began helping themselves.
“It’s hunger that makes people behave like this,” said Mohammed Farouq, a resident. “Some families took many boxes, while others did not take any. This is unfair.”
West of Mosul, army troops arrived on the outskirts of Tal Afar to reinforce state-sanctioned Shiite militias who have captured the town’s airport and are preparing to retake the town, military officials said.
The Iraqi military launched a campaign on October 17 to retake Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city and the ISIL’s last major urban bastion in the country. Most gains have been made by the special forces operating in the section of Mosul east of the Tigris river.
In Baghdad, four separate bomb attacks targeted commercial areas on Sunday, killing at least 10 civilians and wounding 34. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks.
* Associated Press
