Operation to retake Mosul escalates as refugees flee city

World Today

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It’s Day 10 of the offensive to retake Iraq’s second largest city – Mosul from the control of ISIL militants.

In the last week and a half, Kurdish Peshmerga and Iraqi army forces with the help of U.S. led coalition air strikes, have liberated around 90 villages around Mosul.

CCTV’s Natalie Carney reports the story.
Follow Natalie Carney on Twitter @NatalieCarney77

As the fighting escalates around Mosul, more people are attempting to escape the grip of ISIL as Iraqi Special Forces moved more than a thousand civilians out of villages and towns.

An Iraqi commander said ISIL has been withdrawing from the town of Shura, toward Mosul, taking civilians with them to use as human shields and leaving behind explosive devices to slow the advance of the Iraqi forces.

Meanwhile, on the outskirts of Mosul, Peshmerga fighters have retaken the village of Derk. They also found a tunnel containing a large number of weapons in the area. One leader said a plane targeted a group of militant suicide bombers trying to advance.

New refugees also arrived at an Iraqi humanitarian camp northeast of the city. The International Organization for Migration said around 9,000 people have been displaced since the operation to retake Mosul began in mid-October.

Around 500 federal police officers have also joined the forces moving toward Mosul.

On the diplomatic front, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the fight to oust ISIL from its self-declared Syrian capital, Raqqa, could get underway in the next few weeks and overlap with the offensive to liberate Mosul about 450 kilometers away. He said it will be conducted by Syrians enabled by the U.S.


CCTV’s Natalie Carney Gerçik reports from the Zelikan refugee camp in Erbil, Iraq, where people fleeing Mosul have traveled to. There are roughly 250 displaced people at the camp who have fled as the government continues its offensive against ISIL in Mosul.