People fleeing the Iraqi city say a coordinated attack is being planned from within as Iraqi and Kurdish forces close in

Mosul residents who have fled Islamic State say a homegrown resistance, raised over the past six months, has made plans to launch coordinated attacks against the group as Iraqi and Kurdish forces close in – a move that could prove influential in the final battle for the city.



Though a decisive clash still appears to be weeks away – by some estimates up to two months – the residents say an underground movement has organised into cells that are prepared to oppose Isis when they receive sufficient support.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A peshmerga fighter in Mount Zardak, about 15 miles east of Mosul. Photograph: UPI/Barcroft Images

Two members of a family who arrived at a peshmerga checkpoint in the north of the country this week told the Guardian that they had received training on how to organise in secret and said tribes in other parts of the city were also ready to revolt. Their family was taken to Irbil after less than a day in a holding centre set up for those fleeing Isis’s last urban stronghold in Iraq.

“There are people who support us, but we can’t say who,” said one of the men on Wednesday. “It isn’t big, but it is happening.”

Rumours of a locally led revolt against Isis have been rife since late in the summer and have intensified as the battle draws nearer.

While there is no evidence that anti-Isis rebels have the firepower to take on their tormentors, or that an insurrection is imminent, the claims add another dimension to a fight that looms as a last stand for a diminished group that has lost much local backing.

Fighting for every yard: on the ground with Kurdish troops pushing into Mosul Read more

Another man, who identified himself as Abu Jameel and claimed to be a former Iraqi intelligence officer, said he too was part of a resistance cell but had been forced to leave after Isis had killed his father and put a bounty on him.

“I would not say it is a huge movement, but we have studied their tactics,” he said. “We will mimic them. They kill us in our beds, and we will do the same. They have strong security and so do we. There is blood between them and us, and that needs to be settled.”

The notion of revenge was a central driver of an uprising against an earlier incarnation of the Islamic State in 2007, when tribes from Anbar province turned on jihadis who had taken over their communities. That revolt was supported by the US army, which was still an occupying presence and, for a time, brought calm to Anbar and other restive parts of the country.



Ever since it has been held up as a template for counter-insurrection, and has featured heavily in discussions among Iraqi and US officials who say empowering tribes and clans in Mosul with some form of post-war governance will be essential to holding post-Isis communities together.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Still taken from an Isis video released through the group’s Amaq news agency, apparently shot in Mosul on Tuesday. Photograph: Reuters Tv/Reuters

Inside a holding area in the Debaga refugee camp, south of Irbil, more than 200 men and boys from Mosul waited on Tuesday to be screened by Kurdish security officials, who said some of the new arrivals had been anxious to provide details of Isis positions and members.

“They come to us all the time,” said one of the camp officials. “Some of them have been taken to Irbil for further questions, but most are just normal people looking to better their lives.”

Battle for Mosul: 'This is going to take a long time – Isis won't give up' Read more

Another man, Abu Juud, 23, who said he had fled Isis because they had demanded $20,000 in fines from him for smuggling cigarettes, claimed that tribal figures had already started to plan for the day the city was recaptured. “I have uncles who are involved in this. It’s part of the underground resistance as much as killing people. I swear that Isis were ruthless. They cut heads as easily as they eat.”

Three days into the campaign to recapture Mosul and its surrounds from Isis, the flow of refugees intensified on Wednesday. Kurdish troops received close to2,000 people, sharply up from previous days, while several thousand more were believed to have crossed into areas controlled by the Iraqi army. Families from Mosul city arrived at Gwer and Khanash checkpoints to the south-east of the city – the first to have made the journey since the fight began.

Meanwhile, Kurdish troops are making final plans for a three-pronged assault from north of Mosul, which aims to take 28 villages, among them Christian towns and enclaves on the Nineveh plains that were overrun by Isis in August 2014. The push is timed to coincide with an advance by the Iraqi army, which has moved to the outskirts of Hamdaniya, the largest Christian city in Iraq, and is planning to enter the city later this week.

All of Nineveh’s remaining Christians fled when Isis stormed across the ancient plains. Many have settled in the Irbil suburb of Ankawa, which is now home to one of the largest Christian communities in the Middle East.

“If the Iraqi army has to destroy my home to take back my community, then so be it,” said Adib Majid Yousuf, from Hamdaniya. “I was the last in my community to leave and I will be among the first to go back. Our ancestors were all born there.”