Mosul is the second largest city in Iraq, after Baghdad. It is a city of 1.5 million people (according to UN estimates). It is a city where Sunni Arabs, Shia Arabs, Kurds, Yezidis, Armenians, Assyrians, Turkmens, and even some followers of Christianity have coexisted for a very long time. Mosul is also the informal political…
Daesh destroyed Mosul water pipeline About 40% or 650,000 people in Mosul are in danger after Daesh (IS) destroyed its water pipeline and food is also running out for the civilians inside the city. Daesh gangs are using the most horrific means of killing the civilians trying to flee Mosul, targeting them with IEDs, ‘sniping’…
The Iraqi army, backed by US-led airstrikes, is trying to capture east Mosul at the same time as the Syrian army and its Shia paramilitary allies are fighting their way into east Aleppo. An estimated 300 civilians have been killed in Aleppo by government artillery and bombing in the last fortnight, and in Mosul there…
At the first stage of what is likely to be a lengthy appeals process, the Information Commissioner has upheld the Ministry of Defence’s refusal to reveal to Drone Wars UK the number of Britain’s armed drones currently deployed. Despite the fact that the MoD are happy to give such details about other surveillance and attack aircraft taking…
As it always happens, a major military offensive in a country where multiple interests collide and converge, alliances take place. Some new are formed and some old suffer a set-back. Iraqi army’s operation in Mosul, the erstwhile capital of the Islamic State in Iraq, has produced the same kind of impact. As such, whereas it…
The Iraqi armed forces are becoming bogged down in the battle for Mosul. Its elite special forces and an armoured division are fighting to hold districts in the eastern outskirts of the city against counter-attacks by Isis fighters using networks of tunnels to move about unseen. “In one day we lost 37 dead and 70…
