About 3.4 million people have already been forced by conflict to leave their homes across Iraq, taking refuge in areas controlled by the government or in the Kurdish autonomous region east of Mosul, ISIS’ de facto capital.
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“UNHCR is doing what it can amid enormous challenges to build more camps to accommodate people and mitigate suffering, but additional land for camps and funding is still needed”, Edwards said.
The victims were executed over charges of conspiring against the IS rule in Mosul, Xinhua news agency reported.
He said that “intelligence reports indicated that dozens of the terrorists have fled the town and resorted to their main stronghold in Mosul”. Iraqi forces backed by Kurdish Peshmerga militia are now preparing an assault on Mosul.
Special forces spokesman Sabah al-Numan said troops were still fighting a small group of ISIS militants inside the complex.
Mosul is Iraq’s second city and had an estimated population of around two million before IS took it over in June 2014 in an offensive that sparked large-scale displacement.
The U.N. Refugee Agency UNHCR warned on Tuesday that it was preparing for massive displacement from Mosul.
He also said the situation would largely depend on the decisions made by the government in Baghdad, adding Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi must promote unity between Arabs and non-Arabs.
A British national has died in Iraq while apparently trying to defuse a bomb planted by Islamic State.
Just last week, ISIS was hit hard in the very same province of Nineveh, when USA -led coalition forces struck a convoy of ISIS tankers, dealing yet another blow on the terrorist group’s oil infrastructure. “UNHCR’s overall appeal for $584m for displaced people including Iraqi refugees in the region was only 38 per cent funded as of 2 August”.
The Middle Eastern countries, notably Syria and Iraq, are struggling with jihadists, such as the Daesh outlawed in Russian Federation and the United States among others.
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With the help of USA airstrikes and assistance from other powers, including Iran, a conglomeration of Iraqi government forces and militias have since reclaimed the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah from the Islamic State, leaving Mosul as the militant group’s last major redoubt in the country.
