Health crisis looms in Mosul after water supply cut

Iraqi commanders said around 40 per cent of eastern Mosul had been retaken from the extremists since an offensive to recapture the city began on October 17.

The stakes are high for the Iraqi government and its U.S. backers as they orchestrate a massive, multipronged attack on the Islamic State’s largest stronghold in Iraq, which has been under its control for two and a half years.

On Tuesday, Iraq’s Counter Terrorism Service head Lieutenant General Abdel Ghani Asadi said that the anti-terrorist service has liberated 25 districts of Mosul, including the districts of Aha Sania.

The UN explained it had few reliable figures for the western province of Anbar, which has seen continued IS-related violence in recent weeks, and suggested that real casualty figures were likely higher.

Iraqi forces moving from the east have captured about a quarter of Mosul, trying to advance to the Tigris river that runs through its center.

Separately, a senior official of the International Committee of the Red Cross told Reuters that it expected the Mosul campaign to last for “weeks if not months”.

In west of Mosul, the predominantly Shiite Hashd Shaabi units freed the villages al-Salhiyah and Bootha al-Sharqiyah near the IS-held town of Tal Afar, some 70 km west of Mosul, after heavy clashes with IS militants, according to a statement by the Hashd Shaabi. IS has been firing an average of 100 mortars daily on their positions, the spokesman, Jaafar al-Husseini.

“Within the last two days, at least 15 children have been killed this way”, he said.

Jawad al-Shamari said the victims were killed after they opposed to the installation of rocket launchers on their home rooftops, which were to be aimed at security forces.

The UN is also asking donors to fund winter kits for 1.2 million people, with the expectation that the majority of the city’s population will have to flee from the fighting. The group has previously killed residents it suspects of collaborating with the Iraqi army.

Iraqi forces on Tuesday.

The Iraqi military estimates there are 5,000 to 6,000 insurgents in Mosul, resisting the advancing troops with suicide vehicle bombs and sniper and mortar fire that also kill civilians.

“We are also deeply anxious about the fate of hundreds of people who are reportedly being abducted by ISIL and moved to unknown locations”, it said.

In a November 25 incident, 27 civilians were reportedly shot dead in Mosul’s northern Muhandiseen Park, possibly for “leaking information” to the Iraqi Security Forces, the United Nations added.