Daesh using Iraqis as human shields in Mosul: Witnesses
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Iraqi Counter Terrorism Forces drive their armored vehicles after they retook an area from Daesh on April 2, 2016 in the village of Al-Mamoura, near Hit, Anbar Province. ©AFP
Daesh terrorists are using civilians as human shields in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul amid a major army offensive to liberate the strategic city from the Takfiri group, witnesses say.
According to Press TV, Iraqi residents who managed to escape the Daesh-held areas told Middle East Eye that the terrorists have moved mortar batteries and fighters into civilian homes across the troubled region.
Most of them spoke of being locked in their homes, snipers hiding on their rooftops, and being forced to share their homes with terrorists.
Ahmed Salih Salih, a resident of Mosul who recently found safety in the Iraqi Kurdish autonomous region, said Daesh terrorists had placed mortar tubes next to civilian houses in anticipation of the arrival of Iraqi government forces.
Salih went on to say that several civilians have been killed as a result such tactics by Daesh terrorists. “My neighbors had a Dash mortar in their house and it was bombed. Three people were killed,” he said.
He is among one of an estimated 2,000 civilians who fled their homes when the Iraqi army liberated villages about 60 kilometers south of Mosul last month.
Muhannad al-Sabawi, another resident, said Daesh terrorists rounded up civilians and blended in when it was clear that Iraqi forces were closing in on his village.
ME
