Forces advancing south of Mosul uncover evidence of Isis brutality while peshmerga goes on offensive to recapture Bashiqa

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Iraqi Kurdish fighters have exchanged heavy fire with militants as they entered a town held by Islamic State east of Mosul, while troops advancing south of the city discovered a mass grave containing an estimated 100 or so decapitated bodies.

The offensive to reclaim the town of Bashiqa is part of the broader push to drive Isis out of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, relieving those living under its brutal occupation, which has included mass killings.

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Isis militants have carried out a series of massacres since seizing large areas of southern and central Iraq in the summer of 2014, often documenting them with photos and videos circulated online.

On Monday, Iraqi soldiers advancing into the town of Hamam al-Alil, south of Mosul, discovered a pit containing dozens of decapitated skeletal remains, the military’s joint military command said.

The offensive to retake Bashiqa began at dawn with a Kurdish barrage of heavy artillery, Katyusha rockets and mortar rounds slamming into Isis positions, providing cover for the advance of armoured columns. Smoke rose from the town throughout the day, with large explosions sending dark clouds into the sky.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers fire artillery at Islamic State positions in Bashiqa. Photograph: Felipe Dana/AP

“We have the coordinates of their bases and tunnels, and we are targeting them from here in order to weaken them so that our forces can reach their targets more easily,” said Iraqi Kurdish commander Brig Gen Iskander Khalil Gardi.

Bashiqa, which is believed to be largely deserted except for dozens of Isis fighters, is located about eight miles north-east of Mosul’s outskirts and about 13 miles from the city centre. Iraqi government and Kurdish forces, backed by a US-led coalition and joined by government-sanctioned militias, are fighting to drive Isis out of those surrounding areas and open additional fronts to attack Mosul itself.

Bashiqa has been surrounded by Kurdish forces, known as peshmerga, for weeks but Monday’s push appeared to be the most serious yet to drive Isis from the town.

Kurdish forces launched mortar rounds and fired heavy artillery into the town on Sunday in advance of the offensive. More artillery and air strikes hit the town early on Monday as the Kurdish forces’ advance got underway.

On Mosul’s southern front, meanwhile, Iraqi soldiers advancing into Hamam al-Alil, around 12 miles from the city centre, discovered a mass grave late on Monday containing roughly 100 decapitated bodies near the town’s agricultural college. Most were reduced to skeletons, said Brig Gen Yahya Rasool, the spokesman for the joint military command. He said a forensics team from Baghdad would investigate the site on Tuesday.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Iraqis inspect the damage at a site in the Hamam al-Alil area, about 14 kilometres from the southern outskirts of Mosul. Photograph: Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP/Getty Images

Earlier on Monday, army spokesman Brig Firas Bashar said Iraqi forces had retaken the town, and images broadcast by the Lebanon-based Al-Mayadeen network showed images of soldiers hoisting the Iraqi flag on a rooftop in the town. However, other reports said fighting still continued and that Isis fighters remained in several areas.

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Iraqi special forces entered Mosul last week and have made some progress in gaining a foothold on the city’s eastern edges. But progress inside the city has been slowed as troops push into more densely populated areas.

The troops are suffering casualties as the militants target them with suicide car bombs and booby traps in close-quarters fighting along the city’s narrow streets. Isis still holds territory to the north, south and west of Mosul, its last major urban stronghold in Iraq.

As Iraqi forces struggle to solidify gains in neighbourhoods in eastern Mosul, more and more civilians have fled the city, according to Lt Col Hussein Aziz of special forces.

“Daesh is trying to draw a line,” Aziz said of the heavy fighting in Mosul’s most eastern neighborhoods, referring to the militant group by its Arabic acronym. “They have a lot of fighters there and they forced families to stay.”

Aziz was manning a checkpoint on the edge of Gogjali, where civilians fleeing Mosul are screened to catch any Isis fighters who may be hiding among them. Since Iraqi forces advanced into the eastern edge of the city last Tuesday, Aziz’s team has arrested dozens of people.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Men wait to go through and ID and security check at a civilian screening point after fleeing Mosul in Gogjali, Iraq. Photograph: Chris McGrath/Getty Images

At the checkpoint, men were waiting for their names to be screened by a pair of informants from the area and multiple Iraqi government databases. Women and children waited farther away in the shade of an abandoned building.

Gayda, a 42-year-old Mosul resident, said she fled the Samah neighborhood in the city’s east just hours earlier after a car bomb exploded next to her home. She gave only her first name, fearing for her safety and that of family members still under Isis rule in other parts of Mosul.

When they reached the checkpoint, the woman’s husband and son were separated from her and her daughter, and held for questioning a few yards away.

“How can he be from Daesh, he’s so young,” she said of her 18-year-old son. “We are good people, we don’t have any enemies.”

Concern over the safety of civilians was not affecting the operation in Bashiqa, said Gardi, the peshmerga commander. “Regarding the challenges, in any area that has no civilians, there won’t be any problem. And, currently, according to our intelligence, there are no civilians left in Bashiqa,” he said.

Meanwhile the World Health Organisation said it has set up 82 rapid response teams to manage risks of epidemics, chemical exposure and other health worries among people fleeing Mosul.

The UN agency said water and sanitation in camps for the displaced could face disruptions as the number of people fleeing the city grows, raising the risk of food and water-borne diseases such as cholera. It also said that additional concerns include children who reportedly have not been immunised since Isis seized control of Mosul in June 2014.