ISIS terrorists are holding 20,000 civilians in Iraq’s Shirqat
A human rights monitor announced that ISIS members are holding 20,000 civilians in a town in Salahuddin amid hiking commodity prices.
The Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights said ISIL traps 20,000 in the Eastern part of Shirqat town, which has been under the militant group’s control since 2014, IraqiNews reported.
The organization urged the Iraqi government to hasten with military operations to retake the town from ISIS, arguing that “violations endured by the residents of the Eastern side of Shirqat had been extensive and as serious as those that took place in Western Mosul.”
It added that the violations are coupled with heating commodity prices.
The head of Iraqi Falcon Intelligence Cell (FIC), Abu Ali al-Basri told Al-Sabah newspaper that “the Mosul battle showed that the capabilities of the terrorist organization threaten not only Iraq and the region, but also many parts of the world”.
Al-Basri warned of the ISIS’s imminent plans to carry out global attacks, saying that “the terror group has sent sleeper cells from Syria through Turkey to deploy around the world in order to spread terror and chaos, using money paid by extremist clerics who have political goals”.
On Saturday, Lt. Gen. Abdul-Amir Yarallah, head of the Nineveh Operations at the Joint Operations Command, said in a briefing that more than 25.000 militants were killed over the nine months of battles, including more than 450 suicide bombers.
Last week, the Iraqi Army announced that Baghdad forces has recaptured the key town of Mosul, ISIL’s de facto capital in the Arab country, after 9-month of bloody battle with the Takfiri terrorists in Nineveh province.
According to an Iraqi commander that led the war to retake Iraq’s second largest city, security operations against the ISIL militants in Mosul left 25,000 militants killed.
Lt. Gen. Abdul-Amir Yarallah, head of the Nineveh Operations at the Joint Operations Command, said in a briefing that more than 25,000 militants were killed over the nine months of battles, including more than 450 suicide bombers.
He added that Iraqi forces destroyed 1247 booby-trapped cars and shot down 130 drones belonging to the group besides more than 1500 diverse vehicles.
The commander declared that the JOC fought the battle with more than 100,000 government and paramilitary troops.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced in October 2016, the start of a military operation to recapture Mosul.
Baghdad declared earlier in January that the Iraqi troops managed to capture the Eastern part of the key ISIL stronghold in Nineveh province. The Iraqi Army started a new phase of its military operation late February to drive the ISIL terrorists out of their bastion in the Western part of the city of Mosul.
The second largest city in Iraq fell to the ISIL group in 2014, when the Takfiri terrorists began a campaign of death and destruction in the Arab country.
The United Nations predicted that it will cost more than $1 billion to repair basic infrastructure in Mosul. In some of the worst affected areas, almost no buildings appear to have escaped damage.
An estimated 862,000 people have been displaced from Mosul ever since the battle began nine months ago. A total of 195,000 civilians have also returned to the liberated areas of Eastern and Western Mosul.
Source: Farsnews
