UN: 100,000 civilians feared trapped by ISIL in Mosul

Smoke billows from western Mosul’s Al Shifa district on June 15, 2017, during an ongoing offensive by Iraqi forces to retake the city from ISIL. Mohamed El Shahed / AFP

GENEVA // About 100,000 civilians remain trapped behind ISIL lines in Mosul as a US-backed government offensive to recapture the Iraqi city enters its ninth month, the United Nations refugee agency said on Friday.

ISIL snipers are shooting at families trying to flee on foot or by boat across the Tigris River, the UNHCR said.

“These civilians are basically held as human shields in the Old City,” UNHCR’s Iraq representative Bruno Geddo said, referring to Mosul’s historic district where the militants are besieged by Iraqi government forces.

“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.”

The offensive to retake Mosul, ISIL’s de facto capital in Iraq, started on October 17 with air and ground support from a US-led international coalition.

Iraqi government forces regained eastern Mosul in January, then a month later began the offensive on the western side that 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.

“ISIS snipers continue to aim at people trying to flee because there is this long-standing policy 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” that ISIL leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi declared in a speech from a mosque in the Old City three years ago, covering parts of Iraq and Syria.

About 200,000 people were estimated to be trapped behind ISIL lines in Mosul in May, but the number has declined as government forces have thrust 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. 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 means in a deeply tribal society that you see evictions, destruction of property, confiscation of property for families perceived as being associated with ISIS because one family member might have been having that link.

“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,” he said.

* Reuters