VIDEO: Civilians say IS militants running away in southern Mosul Airport
Civilians who escaped to villages near the southern Mosul Airport on Tuesday said Islamic State (IS) militants were leaving areas near the airport as Iraqi security forces advanced.
MOSUL, Iraq (Kurdistan24) – Civilians who escaped to villages near the southern Mosul Airport on Tuesday said Islamic State (IS) militants were leaving areas near the airport as Iraqi security forces advanced.
Kurdistan24 correspondent Zardasht Hame, embedded with Iraqi security forces in the Albu Sayf village located in southern Mosul, talked to some of the civilians who arrived at the Iraqi troops front lines.
“We escaped our areas yesterday late evening. Most of the [IS] fighters left the area,” a man holding a white flag in his hands told Kurdistan24.
“There are only foreign [IS] fighters there who didn’t know what to do but open fire on civilians,” he added.
A child who was among the escaped civilians explained that the night before, IS fighters entered his house and put a Kalashnikov to his father’s head.
“They were about to shoot my dad, but thank God they didn’t,” he told Kurdistan24. “Later, they escaped.”
Another man, from the Sairamoon village, explained the insurgents had left the area since Monday evening.
The Kurdish video below shows the moment civilians arrived at the Iraqi forces front line in the southern Mosul Airport:
Iraqi troops launched the military operation to liberate the remaining western part of Mosul city from IS, under the group’s control since June 2014.
Editing by Karzan Sulaivany