Civilians flee as Shi'ite groups close in
on flashpoint town west of Mosul
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[November 23, 2016]
By Isabel Coles and Saif Hameed
ERBIL/BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) - Tens of
thousands of Iraqi civilians have fled Tal Afar as Shi'ite paramilitary
groups close in the Islamic State-held town on the road between Mosul
and Raqqa, the main cities of the militant group's self-styled caliphate
in Iraq and Syria.
The exodus from Tal Afar, 60 km (40 miles) west of Mosul, is causing
concern among humanitarian organizations as some of the fleeing
civilians are heading deeper into insurgents' territory, where aid
cannot be sent to them, provincial officials said.
Popular Mobilisation units, a coalition of mostly Iranian-trained and
backed militias, are trying to encircle Tal Afar, a mostly ethnic
Turkmen town, as part of the offensive to capture Mosul, the last major
city stronghold of Islamic State in Iraq.
About 3,000 families have left the town, with about half heading
southwest, toward Syria, and half northward, into Kurdish-held
territory, said Nuraldin Qablan, a Tal Afar representative in the
Nineveh provincial council, now based in the Kurdish capital Erbil.
"We ask Kurdish authorities to open a safe passage for them," he told
Reuters.
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He said Islamic State started on Sunday night to allow people to leave
after it fired mortars at Popular Mobilisation positions at the airport,
south of the city, and Popular Mobilisation forces responded.
The offensive started on Oct. 17 with air and ground support from a
U.S.-led coalition. It is turning into the most complex campaign in Iraq
since the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein and empowered the
nation's Shi'ite majority.
The people fleeing Tal Afar are from the Sunni community, which makes up
a majority in the Nineveh province in and around Mosul. The town also
had a Shi'ite community, which fled in 2014 when the hardline Sunni
group swept through the region.
Turkey is alarmed that regional rival Iran could extend its power
through proxy groups to an area close to the Turkish and Syrian borders,
where Ankara is backing rebels opposed to the Russian and Iranian-backed
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Citing its close ties to Tal Afar's Turkmen's population, Turkey has
threatened to intervene to prevent revenge killings should Popular
Mobilisation forces, known in Arabic as Hashid Shaabi, storm the town.
"People are fleeing due to the Hashid's advance, there are great fears
among the civilians," said Qablan, who is also the deputy head of
Nineveh's provincial council.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi tried to allay fears of ethnic and
sectarian killings in Tal Afar, saying any force sent to recapture it
would reflect the city's diversity.
Cutting the road to Tal Afar would seal off Mosul as the city is already
surrounded to the north, south and east by Iraqi government and Kurdish
peshmerga forces.
Iraq's U.S.-trained Counter Terrorism Service unit breached Islamic
State's defenses in east Mosul at the end of October and is fighting to
expand a foothold it gained there.
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![](../images/112316pics/news_s33.jpg)
Displaced Iraqis, who fled the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul,
gather to receive food supplies in a distribution point at Khazer
camp, Iraq November 23, 2016. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
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AIR STRIKES ON MOSUL
Iraqi military estimates put the number of insurgents in Mosul at
5,000 to 6,000, facing a 100,000-strong coalition of Iraqi
government units, peshmerga fighters and Shi'ite militias.
Mosul's capture is seen as crucial towards dismantling the
caliphate, and Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, believed
to have withdrawn to a remote area near the Syrian border, has told
his fighters there can be no retreat.
A Mosul resident said air strikes have intensified on the western
part of the city, which is divided by the Tigris river running
through its center.
The strikes targeted an industrial area where Islamic State is
thought to be making booby traps and transforming vehicles into car
bombs, he said.
The militants are dug in among more than a million civilians as a
defense tactic to hamper the strikes. They are moving around the
city through tunnels, driving suicide car bombs into advancing
troops and hitting them with sniper and mortar fire.
The Iraqi authorities did not release an overall estimate of the
casualties, but the United Nations warned on Saturday that growing
numbers of wounded civilians and military are overwhelming the
capacity of the government and international aid groups.
More than 68,000 people are registered as displaced because of the
fighting, moving from villages and towns around the city to
government-held areas, according to U.N. estimates.
The figure does not include the thousands of people rounded up in
villages around Mosul and forced to accompany Islamic State fighters
to cover their retreat towards the city as human shields. It also
does not included the 3,000 families which have fled Tal Afar.
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In some cases, men of fighting age were separated from those groups
and summarily killed, according to residents and rights groups.
(Writing by Maher Chmaytelli; Editing by Dominic Evans)
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