Civilians flee Mosul on muddy roads as battle rages on

All of Mosul’s five bridges have been destroyed but the capture of the remaining parts on the West bank of the Tigris facilitates the movement of forces progressing up the river that cuts Mosul in two.

The streets of western Mosul are much narrower than the eastern half of the city, rendering use of Iraqi armored humvee’s useless in some neighborhoods.

United Nations officials tell NBC News that at least 50,000 people have fled the city since the latest offensive began. This latest offensive to drive the militant group from their remaining stronghold in the city began on February 19.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, seized control of the only major road linking Raqa along the Euphrates valley to Deir Ezzor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.

“We rushed to get them out, but they were all under the rubble”, said Ahmed, who lived opposite them. Humanitarian officials are especially concerned as more than one half of the almost 200,000 civilians who have fled since October 2016 are children.

Maj. Saif Ali, who is stationed in Mamun, said huge crowds of civilians began pouring into the area from neighboring districts just after midnight. The Western section, which is still populated by between 650,000 and 800,000 civilians, is the object of a joint push by Iraqi, Turkish, and Kurdish troops and United States air support. “We were up all night trying to control the crowds”.

The families have been moved to a camp near Tikrit.

Fawzi’s husband, Wissam Rashid, 46, was being treated in the same room for mild symptoms and had a burn mark on his head after a rocket attack Sunday in Mosul’s Zuhoor neighborhood. Coalition fighters have been met with waves of suicide bombings, sniper and mortar fire and commercial drones armed with grenades and artillery shells.

The report said that at least 19 of the 52 attacks took place in and around Mosul.

The fighting is now moving closer to the city’s historic center and to the mosque where ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi preached in July 2014 – declaring himself the leader of a so-called Islamic State.

“He was arrested after police received accurate intelligence information”.

The push on Mosul’s west was launched about two weeks ago. We have met no one from the Iraqi ministry of displacement. Younis walked for hours, crossing more than five kilometers (three miles) with his mother, father, brother and sister.