Fears of growing humanitarian crisis as winter sets in
As US-backed Iraqi troops continue the fight to retake Mosul from Islamic State, with the fighting now entering its sixth week, the number of refugees is growing. United Nations officials say that almost 70,000 Iraqis have fled since the fighting began, with 14,000 of them fleeing in the past week.
“As the fighting pushes into more heavily and densely populated areas, there couple be more displacement,” Matthew Saltmarsh, the senior communications officer for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) told The Media Line. “We are responding with humanitarian support including the construction of camps and the provision of core relief items that will help those displaced prepare for winter.”
The UN has already opened six refugee camps around the area of Mosul in northern Iraq. Saltmarsh said these camps are currently hosting 14,000 people and have the capacity for 55,000 people. Other groups, including the Iraqi government, have also opened refugee camps.
The offensive to retake Mosul has been proceeding slowly, as the soldiers have run into resistance from Islamic State. But fears that the US-backed coalition could disintegrate have so far appeared unfounded.
In 2014, when Islamic State took over Mosul, thousands of Iraqi soldiers shed their uniforms and fled, rather than stay and fight. There is some concern this could happen again.
“The Iraqi troops are improved from 2014 when they fell apart, but they are not capable of handling this fight on their own,” Daniel L. Davis, a senior fellow with Defense Priorities, a new think-tank in Washington, DC, and a retired army colonel, told The Media Line. “A Kurdish general I spoke to recently said he would not be surprised if these troops run away again.”
The Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, key US allies, make up the second-largest fighting force with about 40,000 members. They are trying to reach Mosul from the east of the city. Also involved are thousands of soldiers from the Popular Mobilization Units (PMUs), a group of paramilitary organizations that officially operate under the command of the Iraqi government.
Most of the members of the PMU are Shi’ite fighters, some with ties to Iran. There are also a number of units with Sunni and Christian fighters. The Iraqi government has said that these militias are not allowed to enter the center of Mosul and has limited their fighting to the outskirts of the city.
The fight for Mosul continues amid revelations that Islamic State used chemical weapons at least 52 times since it took over large swaths of Syria and Iraq. More than one-third of those chemical attacks have come in and around Mosul, the Islamic State stronghold in northern Iraq, according to the assessment by the IHS Conflict Monitor, a London-based intelligence collection and analysis service.
In addition, a mass grave recently found in the state of Mosul probably contained the bodies of more than 300 former Iraqi police officials who were killed three weeks ago and buried in a mass grave, Human Rights Watch said.
“This is another piece of evidence of the horrific mass murder by ISIS of former law enforcement officers in and around Mosul,” Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch told The Media Line. “ISIS should be held accountable for these crimes against humanity.” The Iraqi effort to retake Mosul from Islamic State has been going on for a month, and troops have dislodged Islamic State from pockets of the city. Mosul is Islamic State’s last big stronghold in Iraq, and analysts say the offensive will be the biggest battle in Iraq since a US-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Saltmarsh of UNHCR says they have launched a special appeal to raise $196 million for Iraqi refugees, and so far, it is more than half-funded.