- Title: IS prison discovered in Iraqi town south of Mosul
- Date: 7th November 2016
- Summary: PEOPLE WALKING DOWN STREET MEN AND CHILDREN STANDING ON STREET FEDERAL POLICE FORCES AND ARMOURED VEHICLES ON STREET (AUDIO OF MUSIC) MAN HOLDING UP WHITE FLAG ON ROOF OF HOUSE AND ARMOURED VEHICLE STANDING NEARBY VARIOUS OF CHILDREN DANCING NEAR FEDERAL POLICE FORCES AND ARMORED VEHICLES (AUDIO OF MUSIC)
- Embargoed: 22nd November 2016 13:38
- Keywords: Iraq Mosul Offensive soldiers ISIS prison Hammam al-Alil
- Location: HAMMAM AL-ALIL, IRAQ
- City: HAMMAM AL-ALIL, IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Military Conflicts
- Reuters ID: LVA00257G4JLZ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Iraqi security forces swept through the recently recaptured town of Hammam al-Alil, south of Mosul on Monday (November 7), uncovering a prison used by Islamic State militants to hold residents of the village.
The government troops recaptured Hammam al-Alil on Sunday (November 6) from Islamic State militants, according to a senior commander of the Iraqi security forces.
Residents of Mosul and nearby villages said Islamic State was using civilians as human shields abducting local residents and forcing them to march alongside militants to make themselves immune from airstrikes and military operations of the Iraqi troops.
Riyad Ahmad Thaer, a resident of Hammam al-Alil recalled witnessing dozens of men being driven to the makeshift prison in pickup trucks.
"This is a prison where the residents of the city who rose up against the Daesh were kept. They gathered the men who were part of the movement and others who were not, all the families, they hit them and forced them to come here, to this place," he said.
The forces continued to search the town for Improvised Explosive Devices and any remaining jihadists.
The advance on the southern front comes days after Iraqi Special Forces fought their way into the eastern side of Mosul, taking control of six neighbourhoods according to Iraqi officials and restoring a foothold in the city for the first time since the army retreated two years ago.
Mosul, the largest Islamic State-controlled city in either Iraq or Syria, has been held by the group since its fighters drove the army out of northern Iraq in June 2014. The campaign to retake it is the most complex military operation in Iraq since the 2003 U.S. invasion which toppled Saddam Hussein.
Twin offensives on Raqqa and Mosul could bring to an end the self-styled caliphate declared by Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi from the pulpit of a Mosul mosque in 2014. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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