Iraq News

26,000 Iraqis flee west Mosul fighting in 10 days

At least 26,000 people have fled in the 10 days since Iraqi forces launched a push to retake west Mosul, Jassem Mohammed al-Jaff, the minister of displacement and migration, said in a statement.

That number is only a fraction of the 750,000 people in west Mosul who are believed to be still under "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL) rule, but it is expected to rise sharply in the coming days and weeks.

Iraq's Joint Operations Command announced that the Counter-Terrorism Service had recaptured Maamun Flats, which commander Staff Lt. Gen. Abdulghani al-Assadi considered "important for the control of the surrounding neighbourhoods".

Meanwhile, Iraqi troops have been providing humanitarian assistance to residents who stayed behind in the areas of west Mosul that were recaptured over the past few days.

"We have provided tonnes of medical and humanitarian assistance to the residents of those areas," Ninawa operations commander Lt. Gen. Abdul Ameer Rashid Yarallah told Diyaruna.

Residents have also been providing Iraqi forces with information and tips on ISIL fighters, he said.

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