The US accused Daesh [Arabic acronym for “ISIS” / “ISIL”] militants of using civilians as human shields and may resort to launching chemical attacks as Iraqi forces move closer to the group’s stronghold in Mosul. Some 700,000 people are believed to remain in city, where up to 5,000 Daesh fighters face the third day of the operation to retake Mosul. News that the nearby town of Qaraqosh had been liberated was later denied by a government commander.
But the US-backed coalition said they had driven Daesh out of 10 villages. Government troops are moving up from the south while their Kurdish allies are approaching from the east in a two-pronged campaign which began on Monday.
US President Barack Obama sought to allay concerns about an exodus of civilians from the area, saying “plans and infrastructure” are in place for dealing with a potential humanitarian crisis.
Asked by reporters in Washington if Daesh was using civilians as human shields, Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis said “absolutely”. “They are being held there against their will,” he said on Tuesday. “We have not seen any change in the last day of people leaving or fleeing.”
Residents reached by telephone by Reuters news agency said Daesh was preventing people fleeing the city and had directed some of them towards buildings likely to be targeted by air strikes.
The UN is working to create new refugee sites outside Mosul. Lise Grande, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, said the organization was working on the assumption that as many as 200,000 people might need shelter in the first days and weeks of the operation.
Separately, multiple American sources speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity said Tuesday that attacks involving chemical agents are possible, given the terror group’s previous record of such attempts.
The unnamed US officials cautioned of possible use of chemical weapons by Daesh, yet arguing that the group had limited capability in this regard. “Given ‘ISIL’s’ reprehensible behavior and flagrant disregard for international standards and norms, this event is not surprising,” one official told Reuters.
The official added that the US forces found a sulfur mustard agent on Daesh munitions fragments on October 5. According to the US officials, The Takfiri group has so far failed to reach the know-how to build chemical weapons with significantly lethal effects.
The remarks came one day after the Iraqi forces launched the long-anticipated battle. Out of the 5,000 American military forces present in Iraq, more than 100 of them are taking part in the operation supposedly as advisors.
Apart from that, the United States and some its allies had been carrying out air strikes in Iraq since June 2014 allegedly targeting Daesh terrorists in the northern and western parts of the conflict-plagued Arab country.
Source: News Agencies
