Key water pipeline hit as UN warns of siege-like situation in Iraq’s second largest city where food supplies are running low

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Fighting around Mosul has cut off water supplies for about 650,000 people in the Islamic State stronghold, as the UN warned that a siege-like situation was developing with food stocks running low after weeks of clashes.

A broad coalition of anti-Isis troops is closing in on Iraq’s second largest city, but progress is slow in urban areas because militants have dug in and are hiding among up to a million civilians, using them as human shields.

UK commander in Iraq calls for patience over retaking Mosul from Isis Read more

A key water pipeline was hit in fighting on Tuesday, local officials said. “The maintenance team cannot reach the pipeline because it lies in an area being fought over,” Hussam al-Abar, a member of the local council, told Reuters. “We are facing a humanitarian catastrophe.”

Iraq’s prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, said Mosul was completely surrounded and that the speed of the advance had been faster than he expected.

Giving an optimistic forecast for a battle that has been raging for six weeks and most observers expect to last into next year, Abadi claimed Isis morale was fading and that the US president-elect, Donald Trump, had promised extra support for his government.

“In my telephone call with President-elect Trump, he assured me that the US support will not only continue, but it is going to be increased,” he told Associated Press.

Yet poor families in Mosul are already struggling to feed themselves as the battle intensifies, and others are hoarding and hiding food, a top UN envoy warned.

“Key informants are telling us that poor families are struggling to put sufficient food on their tables,” Lise Grande, UN humanitarian coordinator in Iraq, told Reuters. “This is very worrying.”

The fighting has disrupted both markets and supply lines, making food hard to come by and pushing up prices. Costs soared after militia fighters last week severed the route into Syria, the last reliable supply line into the Iraqi centre of Isis’s self-styled caliphate.

“In a worst case, we envision that families who are already in trouble in Mosul will find themselves in even more acute need.” Grande said. “The longer it takes to liberate Mosul, the harder conditions become for families.”

Isis are also worried about food costs, and on Sunday militants arrested about 30 shop owners accused of price gouging, to try to suppress discontent, witnesses told Reuters.

The group has tried to prevent civilians leaving areas under its control, herding thousands deeper into Mosul to serve as human shields while government and other forces advanced.