MOSUL, Iraq – Civilians are fleeing western Mosul in their hundreds as advancing Iraqi troops continue to push ISIS militants further into the city center and the old quarters where more intense fighting is expected.
This is a day after Iraqi troops managed to retake Mosul’s government compound and the governor’s building as well as the Mosul museum.
Rudaw cameras have captured images of people of all ages making their way out of the city carrying whatever they can on foot, while others carry the elderly and the sick on trolleys.
The majority of the people are from the southern district of Wadi Hajar which was liberated several days ago.
A woman who was wounded during the offensive in her district about a week ago was being carried on a trolley by her son who said they were not able to get an X-ray for her to check on her condition.
She and her son were on their way to the eastern half of the city to live with a relative.
Iraqi forces liberated the eastern half on January 24.
Another woman, who fled with 16 members of her extended family, including an injured 16-year old girl wrapped in a blanket, made her way out of the city. She said that the girl fell down the stairs in their house as there was bombing in the nearby area.
Some of the people said that they had walked for hours before reaching safety on the outskirts of the city where Iraqi authorities are providing buses to transport them to areas near Mosul, some to camps south of the city in Hamma al-Alil.
More than 57,000 people had fled western Mosul as of Sunday since the start of the third and current phase of the offensive began more than two weeks ago, Iraq’s minister for migration and displaced Darbaz Mohammad said, adding that since the beginning of the Mosul offensive the number of the displaced has passed a quarter of a million.
