Civilian exodus begins as Iraqi forces close in on Mosul

[Anthea]

Telegraph

Civilian exodus begins as Iraqi forces close in on Mosul

A 74-year-old man was detained, blindfolded and taken to an isolated house before being beaten.

Mizar Mohammed’s assailants were soldiers from the Iraqi Security Forces – the very people who are supposed to protect him. His only apparent crime in the eyes of these Shia soldiers was being a Sunni from an area that had spent two years under the rule of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).

“The Iraqi forces took my phone and money, they told me they were going to execute me,” he remembered. Mr Mohammed was able to escape with the help of a sympathetic soldier and travel eastwards to the Kurdish town of Makhmour.

As Iraqi forces advance towards Mosul, the largest city under Isil’s rule, thousands of people are already fleeing what is expected to become the biggest operation since the start of the counter-offensive against the terrorist movement.

Mr Mohammed joined the almost 2,000 people who have arrived in Makhmour from the area around Mosul, some 60 miles away. When Iraqi forces try to recapture the city itself, this trickle of displaced people is expected to become a flood.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04 ... -on-mosul/