The Iraqi forces are pushing down north towards the Old City
(grey section), which will be the last part of Mosul taken from the Islamic
State (Ninewa Media Cell)
The Golden Division announced that it attacked the Najar
region along the Tigris River in west Mosul. It claimed it had reached that
back on May
2 before the northern offensive had even begun, and then again on May 15. Too often the
Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) get ahead of themselves and state that they have
reached or cleared an area before even being there, and this was another example.
Vice President Osama Nujafi who is from Mosul criticized
the conduct of the Federal Police in the battle. He said that they were
undisciplined and destroying homes and killing civilians with their use of
rockets and artillery. Since March the Federal Police have been stuck in the
Old City. In other articles, they have been singled out for over relying upon
shelling to deal with Islamic State resistance, and causing casualties.
Rudaw was the
latest to write about the humanitarian crisis going on inside IS controlled
Mosul. It talked with a man coming out of west Mosul who said he hadn’t eaten
in 15 days. Others told the paper that people were eating flour, potatoes,
fruit and even leaves to survive. The western section of the city has been cut
off from supplies for quite some time, which has led to growing malnutrition.
Many aid groups and displaced have talked about this issue before. The
situation can only be reversed when the entire city is liberated.
The Hashd went back on the offensive in the Qayrawan area of
west Ninewa. Eight villages were freed
in the process. This raised more criticism. Originally Kurdish President
Massoud Barzani told the Hashd they could not enter Sinjar because of a deal
with Baghdad that banned their forces from the district. Then the mayor of
Sinjar stated
that the Hashd forces could pose a threat if they caused tensions and didn’t
withdraw. The governor of Ninewa joined in by saying
that the Hashd should not be operating in the area without the cooperation of
the Peshmerga. The move into Sinjar has caused this controversy because the
Kurds are struggling to re-assert their political control over the area. The
Hashd are a further complication, so Barzani would like them to stay out. That
may lead the Peshmerga to move into towns to stop the Hashd from taking them,
or a new political controversy with Baghdad or both.
General Najm al-Jabouri, the head of the Ninewa Operations
Command was the latest to announce
that Tal Afar will not be taken until after Mosul is liberated. Months ago, the
Hashd surrounded the town, but were not allowed to take it. That was in part
due to objections by Turkey who said that it would intervene if those forces
moved on the town. The question is when Tal Afar is attacked will the Hashd
take part as they have waited to do or whether it will just be the army and
police to assuage Ankara.
Many of the displaced (IDPs) from Mosul do not have their
government papers.
That is a huge problem because without them they can’t get any services from
the government. The Independent reported on an added problem, children born in
Mosul under the Islamic State have never been issued papers. If they are single
mothers they can’t get documents for their children because Iraqi law requires
a mother and a father to confirm the birth. Iraqi and international aid groups
are trying to get legal teams to visit displaced camps and help with these
problems, but there are few judges available, and there are over 300,000 IDPs.
There were several other pieces on the growing number of displaced
and their situation. The International Organization (IOM) documented
another big jump in IDPs caused by the new fighting in northwest Mosul. On May
14, there were 370,344 people registered with the government. That jumped to
376,230 IDPs by May 18. Lise Grande the
United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq warned
that the recent increase in IDPs was overwhelming aid groups. So many are now
arriving at camps that not all of them can be provided for. The U.N. is worried
that tens of thousands more will eventually flee as well. For years, the U.N.’s
Iraq operations have been strained, and the current crisis is only making that
worse. So far only 28% of the group’s humanitarian program is funded. Rudaw added
that the coming summer heat will only exacerbate the current crisis. It is
already reaching 99 F/37 C in some of the camps. That’s expected to rise as
high as 122 F/50 C by the summer. People are already sleeping outside their
tents because of the heat. The IOM is distributing summer kits that include
summer sheets, fans, and water coolers. There is a shortage of electricity and
water however, which may mean these items cannot be used. Finally, scabies,
diarrhea and dehydration were spreading at the Qayara camp, which Rudaw
visited. A recent survey of IDPs found that most felt that they were powerless.
They felt stuck in their current locations, couldn’t get information about aid
or how to register complaints. That’s likely to get worse before they get
better as more people are arriving and the weather changes.
Finally, Human Rights Watch documented
two cases where people were forced out of IDP camps south of Mosul for no
apparent reason. In May, the army went to the Hamam al-Alil camp and told
people from three neighborhoods in Mosul they had to leave immediately because
new arrivals were coming. Around 300 families were put on army trucks and
dropped off at the southern entrance to Mosul. The mayor of Hamam al-Alil got
wind of the situation and ordered it to stop. That same day a sheikh went to
the Haj Ali camp and told people from freed areas they had to go home. Some of
the people kicked out went back to their home areas, while others made the trek
back to Hamam al-Alil. The alleged cause of the forced removal was that more
people were coming from the city, but the U.N. and camp workers revealed there
were 7,000 plots in camps. Even though this was just two cases, it was an
extreme violation of the rights of these people. Many were going back to
districts right along the front lines where there was still a threat of Islamic
State shelling.
SOURCES
Baghdad Post, “Iraq
VP: Federal Police Units destroyed Mosul, killed many civilians,” 5/18/17
Bas News, “Hashd
Al-Shaabi Forces Will Pose Threat to Security of Sinjar: Mayor,” 5/18/17
Human Rights Watch,
“Iraq: Families Who Fled Mosul Forced Back,” 5/18/17
International
Organization for Migration, “Displacement Tracking Matrix Emergency Tracking
Factsheet #29 – Mosul Operations From 17 October to 18 May,” 5/18/17
Al Maalomah, "Security forces storm Najar neighborhood
in West Mosul," 5/15/17
McKernan, Bethan,
“Iraq’s generation of stateless Isis children is being ‘punished for the crimes
of their fathers,’” 5/18/17
Mostafa, Mohamed,
“Iraqi command to target Tal Afar after Mosul, officials say 750 fighters
remain in city,” Iraqi News, 5/18/17
Mostafa, Nehal, "Iraqi troops invade
western Mosul district, kill militants in airstrike," Iraqi News, 5/18/17
- "More than 30 Islamic State militants
killed in western Mosul," Iraqi News, 5/2/17
- “Updated:
Paramilitary troops free airbase, more villages, west of Mosul,” Iraqi News,
5/18/17
Rudaw, “Humanitarian
crisis escalates in Mosul as besieged residents face starvation,” 5/18/17
- “Summer heat: Yet
another challenge to Iraqi IDPs,” 5/18/17
Shafaaq News,
“Ninewa Council criticizes the incursion of the popular crowd into Qayrawan,”
5/18/17
UN Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, “Alarming numbers of people fleeing
western Mosul city,” 5/18/17
Valmary, Simon, “On
Mosul front, Iraqi forces come as civilians go,” Agence France Presse, 5/18/17
Xinhua, “Iraqi forces recapture new neighborhood in western
Mosul,” 5/18/17
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