Iraq forces launch push to retake town south of Mosul

Smoke rises from clashes between Iraqi security forces and ISIL militants in the town of Qayyarah, Iraq on August 23, 2016. Reuters

KIRKUK, IRAQ // Iraqi special forces led an operation on Tuesday aimed at retaking the ISIL-held town of Qayyarah, a key staging base for operations to attack Mosul, as the United Nations warned that hundreds of thousands of Iraqis in and around Mosul could be uprooted by the military assault.

Qayyarah lies on the western bank of the Tigris river, about 60 kilometres south of Mosul, the extremist group’s last major urban stronghold in Iraq.

With the clock ticking down on what Iraq expects to be its biggest anti-ISIL operation yet, the UN warned that Mosul could trigger an unprecedented crisis.

“Worse is yet to come,” the United Nations’ refugee agency (UNHCR) representative in Iraq, Bruno Geddo, said. “We predict that it could result in massive displacement on a scale not seen globally in many years.”

Brig Gen Firas Bashar said Tuesday’s operation “started at dawn with the participation of Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) and army forces”.

US-led coalition aircraft provided support, said Brig Gen Bashar, the spokesman for the operations command in Nineveh, the province in which Qayyarah and Mosul are located.

“Qayyarah will be cleared and the operation wrapped up quickly, bolstering our plans ... for the final battle to liberate Mosul,” CTS spokesman Sabah Al Noman said.

He said Iraqi forces had been working with armed residents inside the town for this offensive, a rare occurrence.

“There has been coordination with groups of armed residents inside,” Mr Al Noman said, declining to provide further details.

Iraqi forces have spent weeks positioning themselves around the town, which is expected to be used as a launch pad for a broader operation against Mosul in the coming weeks or months.

“The humanitarian impact of the military offensive is expected to be enormous, up to 1.2 million people could be affected,” said UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards.

About 3.4 million people have already been forced by conflict to leave their homes across Iraq, taking refuge in areas under control of the government or in the Kurdish region, east of Mosul.

The UNHCR said that 200,000 Iraqis had already been forced to flee their homes this year.

Mosul is Iraq’s second city and had an estimated population of around two million before ISIL took it over in June 2014 in an offensive that sparked large-scale displacement.

Accurate numbers for the population remaining in the city are hard to come by but the UN and other officials have said that up to one million civilians may still be living under ISIL rule in the Mosul area.

“We are building new camps and pre-positioning emergency relief kits to ensure people fleeing get rapid assistance,” Mr Geddo said.

“But even with the best-laid plans, there will be insufficient camps for all families needing shelter and we need to prepare other options,” he added.

* Agence France-Presse and Reuters