Over 103,000 displaced since Mosul operation began: Iraqi Minister

The Iraqi minister of displacement and migration says more than one hundred thousand civilians have fled their homes ever since Baghdad, supported by volunteer fighters and Kurdish Peshmerga forces, launched an operation to retake Mosul from Daesh terrorists.

Jassim al-Jaff announced in a statement that more than 103,000 civilians had experienced forced displacement in the face of the military campaign, noting that nearly 2,470 more civilians fled violence in northern Iraq on Monday alone.

“This takes the total number of displaced people to 103,362 since the operation began,” he said.

Meanwhile, Abu Bakr al-Kanaan, the head of an Iraqi government commission tasked with repatriating displaced people, said some 15,000 people have already returned to their homes in liberated areas south of Mosul.

“And another 10,000 will return to their homes in the area soon,” Kanaan pointed out.

On Monday, Iraqi counter-terrorism forces uncovered a prison of Daesh in Qadisiyah neighborhood eastern Mosul.

A security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Arabic-language al-Baghdadia television network that government forces found many individual cells and torture chambers in addition to classified documents and a list of the names of the detainees at the site.

Later in the day, counter-terrorism forces discovered another Daesh prison in Mosul’s eastern neighborhood of al-Zohour.

Moreover, pro-government fighters from Popular Mobilization Units, better known by the Arabic name Hashd al-Sha’abi, established control over Tal al-Aska’ district northwest of Tal Abtah region.

The volunteer forces had earlier liberated the village of Abu Sanam northwest of Mosul, following fierce skirmishes with Daesh terrorists. Tens of Takfiri terrorists were killed during the heavy exchange of gunfire.

Additionally, Hashd al-Sha’abi bomb disposal teams are engaged in clearing Aziz Agha village northwest of Tal Abtah region from roadside bombs, booby-trapped buildings and unexploded ordnance.

Popular Mobilization Units fighters also confiscated a considerable amount of munitions from a Daesh arms depot in al-Showairah village northwest of Tal Abtah after they managed to free the area from the terrorists’ grip.

On Monday morning, Iraqi pro-government forces managed to retake Um al-Shababit village on the road linking the Kurdish-majority Sinjar region to the city of Tal Afar, located 63 kilometers west of Mosul.

SS