On the road to Mosul, Iraqi soldiers make initial gains, backed by US-supplied armored vehicles [Xinhua]
UN aid agencies have warned on Tuesday that up to 1 million people may be forced to flee the city of Mosul, the last major city under the control of the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq as a major operation to recapture the city unfolds.
On Tuesday, armed forces closing in on Mosul said they had secured almost 20 villages on the outskirts of the city within the first 24 hours of the operation.
Early on Wednesday, aid agencies said that about 900 people had been able to flee the city of Mosul itself and been settled in refugee camps in Turkey.
However, the UN has expressed “extreme concern” for the safety of the people in the area, as IS militants have previously used civilians as human shields after similar battles in Tikrit, Ramadi and Fallujah.
Early on Wednesday, US military commanders said they believe that IS was indeed using civilians as human shields.
International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) Chief of Mission in Iraq Thomas Weiss said there have been reports of chemical weapons being used by IS, resulting in a limited number of gas masks being supplied.
Military sources believe that anywhere between 4,000 to 8,000 militants are thought to be holding out in Mosul while the forces assembled to drive them out are estimated at 30,000, including Iraqi army, Kurdish, Shia militia and Sunni tribal fighters.
The Iraqi fighters are backed by air support from the US-led coalition, as well as by the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters.
The UN refugees organization UNHCR says it has set up camps in the Kurdish Autonomous Region of Iraq that can host 45,000 civilians fleeing the fighting in Mosul.
However, the UNHCR says it is very underfunded and unless tens of millions of dollars come in over the next few days, they will be unable to help what is sure to be much larger numbers of refugees streaming out of Mosul and the areas of fighting.
In the meantime, the initial gains made by the coalition to retake Mosul appear to have slowed as Iraqi and Kurdish forces deal with booby traps and landmines.
On Wednesday, Kurdish brigadier general Sirwan Barzani told CNN that the battle to retake Mosul could take as long as two months.
The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies
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