ululations pleas for cigarettes as iraq forces enter mosul
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today
Arab Today, arab today
Last Updated : GMT 06:49:16
Arab Today, arab today

Ululations, pleas for cigarettes as Iraq forces enter Mosul

Arab Today, arab today

Arab Today, arab today Ululations, pleas for cigarettes as Iraq forces enter Mosul

Iraqis flee their neighbourhood in Mosul
Mosul - ArabToday

As Iraqi forces entered west Mosul on Friday, for the first time since they launched their operation against the Islamic State group stronghold, curious children peered from behind front gates.

"Get back, get back, there are snipers," members of the Rapid Response units shouted at the children, who scattered back into their homes before IS bullets whizzed down into the muddy streets.

The Iraqi forces moved through Haw al-Jawsaq slowly, preceded by a small advance unit backed by attack helicopters.

Humvees drove through the narrow streets, with forces on foot looking out for vehicle bombs or suicide attackers, two favoured IS weapons.

In the first cluster of buildings stood a green mosque that Brigadier General Abbas al-Juburi of the rapid response units said was used by IS to counter the assault when it began earlier in the day.

The green paint on the mosque walls had been blasted away in places by gunfire and shrapnel, and two IS fighters lay dead in front of it.

Inside the neighbourhood, the walls bore signs of IS rule.

Its flag was graffitied on one house, while a large villa's outside wall was marked "reserved for the Islamic State".

On the wall next to a shop entrance was the warning: "Youth are forbidden from sitting here by order of the Hisba" (religious police).

As the troops secured the first part of the neighbourhood, civilians began to venture into the streets, waving and welcoming the soldiers.The soldiers moved house to house, knocking on doors and asking residents for information about remaining fighters or hidden explosives.

Women ululated from inside their homes, while a group of men begged a soldier for cigarettes as he protested that he had none left.

- 'I'm feeling freedom' -

"I'm feeling freedom for the first time in more than two years," said Moqdad Ahmed, sporting the mandatory beard imposed by IS in territory under its control.

"For two years we lived with their orders, short trousers, beards, no cigarettes," he said.

"The women had to cover their faces and bodies, they couldn't go out without a male guardian."

He said he had kept his children home from school after IS transformed the curriculum to focus on weaponry and warfare.

"I pray, but with them you had to go to the mosque or they fined you, and you couldn't leave Mosul, you were trapped."

In another house, an elderly woman stood surrounded by her family, barely able to see or hear the arriving troops searching her courtyard.

"They're saying 'hello', grandma," said one of her granddaughters, like her fair and with striking blue eyes.

"Hello, hello, welcome," she waved at the troops.

Juburi said his forces had taken around two square kilometres (about three quarters of a square mile) inside Mosul by late afternoon in their assault targeting the Jawsaq, Danadan and Tayaran neighbourhoods.

He said there had been foreign fighters in the area and "most of them have been killed and the others fled north".

But IS did not appear to have fully withdrawn from Jawsaq, and firefights were ongoing as the sun started setting.

At one point sniper rounds came at soldiers as they crossed a street.

"Against the wall, against the wall," they shouted to the forces ahead to take cover.

And as they advanced, a huge blast from a car bomb sent black smoke and burning metal into the air in the distance.

source: AFP

arabstoday
arabstoday

Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

ululations pleas for cigarettes as iraq forces enter mosul ululations pleas for cigarettes as iraq forces enter mosul

 



Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

ululations pleas for cigarettes as iraq forces enter mosul ululations pleas for cigarettes as iraq forces enter mosul

 



GMT 23:24 2017 Tuesday ,24 January

Mofida Shiha prefers social TV programs to politics

GMT 21:23 2017 Sunday ,13 August

Fierce clashes between Daesh, SDF in Raqqah

GMT 19:31 2017 Monday ,16 October

Azhar Imam, Mufti to inaugurate international Fatwa

GMT 18:33 2017 Tuesday ,28 March

S. Korea Preparing for N. Korean ICBM Launch

GMT 23:39 2017 Tuesday ,19 September

Iran recruits Afghans, Pakistanis to fight in Syria

GMT 03:51 2017 Saturday ,11 November

'Lazarus' Daly says recovery no miracle

GMT 13:30 2017 Friday ,17 February

Four killed in Kashmir Gun battle

GMT 18:51 2017 Friday ,17 November

FIA WEC Bapco 6 Hours of Bahrain weekend starts

GMT 00:56 2017 Tuesday ,22 August

Britain calls on EU to move Brexit talks forward

GMT 18:56 2017 Wednesday ,01 February

Russia calls for Syria's return to Arab League

GMT 02:29 2017 Wednesday ,08 November

World's richest turf contest hikes prize money

GMT 10:33 2017 Saturday ,15 April

Chicago airport security under fire

GMT 16:30 2017 Sunday ,19 March

100,000 starve while S. Sudan buys weapons

GMT 23:09 2017 Thursday ,30 November

ERC distributes winter aid to Syrian refugees in Jordan
Arab Today, arab today
 
 Arab Today Facebook,arab today facebook  Arab Today Twitter,arab today twitter Arab Today Rss,arab today rss  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube  Arab Today Youtube,arab today youtube

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday arabstoday arabstoday
arabstoday
بناية النخيل - رأس النبع _ خلف السفارة الفرنسية _بيروت - لبنان
arabstoday, Arabstoday, Arabstoday