ISIL kills dozens of civilians trying to flee Mosul

Witnesses describe ISIL hanging several dead bodies from electricity poles as Iraqi forces fight to retake the city.

Displaced Iraqis walk through Mosul's Al Tayaran neighbourhood after fleeing the Old City on April 8. / AFP / AHMAD GHARABLI

BAGHDAD // ISIL has killed dozens of civilians attempting to flee Mosul in recent days, hanging several dead bodies from electricity poles as Iraqi forces fight to retake the city.

Iraqi troops are meeting fierce resistance as militants retreat into the Old City, where street fighting is expected in the narrow alleyways and around the mosque where ISIL declared its caliphate nearly three years ago.

One man said he had found the mutilated body of a relative strung up from an electricity pole in the Tenek district along with three other young men caught trying to flee by the militants.

“Their appearance was shocking. We weren’t able to get them down and they have been there for two days,” said the relative.

The Kurdistan Region security council said the number of people killed by the militants on Monday and Tuesday was as high as 140.

In the Old City, more than 40 civilians were killed when the militants caught them trying to escape, said a resident of the Farouq district where the symbolic Nuri mosque is located.

Another resident of the Old City’s Shahwan district said a family of six, including an elderly woman, had also been killed for the same reason.

A woman from the Yarmouk district said she had narrowly escaped death along with her husband and children after the militants caught them trying to flee among a group of around 30 people.

“They took our bags thinking there was gold or money in them and as they were busy checking the contents, we fled through the houses taking advantage of the pitch darkness,” said the woman, who is now in an area under the control of the security forces.

“I fear those [families] who stayed in Daesh’s grip met a terrible fate”.

Meanwhile, US vice president Mike Pence on Saturday assured Iraqi prime minister Haider Al Abadi of continued US support to defeat ISIL.

The two discussed the situation in Syria and the war on ISIL in a phone call from Mr Pence. The conversation came after US cruise missiles struck a Syrian airbase to punish a chemical attack on a rebel-held town that was widely blamed on Syrian government forces.

Mr Pence “affirmed that US policy in the region didn’t change, its priority is to defeat Daesh in Iraq and the region,” said Mr Abadi’s office.

Iraq faces a balancing act between its alliance with the United States and Iran, a key backer of the Syrian regime.

The Shiite-led Iraqi government on Friday condemned the chemical attack, without naming Bashar Al Assad, calling instead for an international investigation to identify the perpetrator.

The statement also criticised “the hasty interventions” that followed the chemical attack, in reference to the US strikes.

A US-led coalition has been providing air and ground support to Iraqi forces battling ISIL, allowing Iraq to recapture most cities overrun by the extremists in 2014 in areas of northern and western Iraq.

An Iran-backed Iraqi Shiite militia said on Friday it would keep on fighting in Syria in support of Mr Al Assad, despite the US missile strikes.

“Our movement is proceeding on the path of jihad and resistance, and our position concerning the war in Syria won’t change,” Al Nujaba spokesman Hashim Al Musawi said.

Al Nujaba is one of the groups accused by human rights organisations of killing scores of fleeing civilians in the Syrian city of Aleppo last year.

*Reuters