Up to 20,000 civilians trapped in Daesh-held areas of Mosul

BAGHDAD - 6 July 2017: Up to 20,000 civilians are trapped in the last Daesh-held areas in Mosul’s Old City, which Iraqi forces are battling to retake, Al Arabiya TV channel quoted a senior UN official as saying Thursday.

More than eight months since the start of the operation to retake Mosul from Daesh, the jihadists have gone from fully controlling the city to holding a small pocket of territory on the west bank of the River Tigris.

But the fighting against the last Daesh holdouts is heavy, and civilians caught in the middle of the battle are in “extreme danger,” UN humanitarian coordinator in Iraq Lise Grande said.

“Our estimate at this stage is that in the final pockets of the Old City, there could be as many as 15,000 civilians, possibly even as high as 20,000. “The people that are still trapped inside of these pockets are in terrible condition,” facing shortages of food, she said.

The battle has taken a heavy toll on civilians, nearly 700,000 of whom are currently displaced as a result of the fighting, she said