“In a week’s time, more than 204 civilians were killed by security forces and ISIS militants while they were fleeing Old Mosul to areas under the control of security forces,” Dr Saadullah Khafaf, a medical doctor embedded with the joint Iraqi security forces in the offensive to retake the Old Mosul, said in a statement to the media.
He predicted that the number of civilian casualties is likely to rise because a number of heavily populated alleys are still under the control of ISIS militants.
These figures don’t include people killed in their homes by bombardments.
Nearly 104 children under the age of 13 along with some elderly men and women have also died due weakness and dehydration, Khafaf added.
After al-Nuri mosque, al-Hadba minaret, Sanjkhana district, Karar mosque and Bataul hospital were liberated on the right bank of Mosul, the Iraqi defense ministry declared there was little ground left to retake in the city.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has declared the end of ISIS “statelet” in Iraq.
Brigadier General Yahya Rasul, spokesperson for the joint Iraqi operations command, said Mosul has been militarily controlled and Iraq’s official media said the ISIS caliphate has now ended in Iraq.
