(IraqiNews.com) Mosul – Camps for internally-displaced Iraqis have received 750 internally-displaced people from the city of Mosul, the stage of decisive battles between Iraqi joint forces and the Islamic State extremist militant group, the commander of the security operation said Wednesday.

Lt. Gen. Abdel Amir Yarallah said 76 displaced families from the city have now returned home from Jadaa camp. “Anti-terrorism forces will continue to clear houses and roads off IEDs in Kokajli, preparing for the next battle,” he said in a statement obtained by Alsumaria News.

Since October 17th, Iraqi army and police forces, US-led coalition forces, Shia militias and Kurdish troops have been on a decisive battle, code named “We Are Coming, Nineveh”, to liberate the city of Mosul, IS’s last stronghold in Iraq. UN estimates had put the number of civilians who would be displaced in process at more than one million.

On field, Badr Organization, one of the major Shia paramilitary forces fighting within the grand operation, said Wednesday that four more villages had been liberated at Nineveh province, reporting the killing of two IS fighters, who were boarding booby-trapped vehicles, and defusing 18 IEDs.

The organization’s media wing said in a statement that Badr had freed the villages of Abu Shwaiha, Kokh, Abu Fashka and Khweitla and gave out aid to their families.

“There is slow and cautious progress so as to protect civilians’ lives. Forces are 4 kilometers away from the Mahlabiya road which links Mosul with Tal Afar,” the statement said.

Abdul-Ghani al-Assadi, commander of Iraq’s anti-terrorism forces, said Wednesday that his forces were facing a “guerrilla war” in Mosul. While Assadi urged locals to stay home, he ruled out that Islamic State fighters would use them as human shields.

“Media have circulated the term ‘human shields, but Daesh cannot use that technique, but if they do, we have the methods that could force them to release our people,” he told Alsumaria TV.







