Displaced Iraqis flee Mosul's Old City as fighting intensifies

Record ID: 878009

  • Title: Displaced Iraqis flee Mosul's Old City as fighting intensifies
  • Date: 3rd June 2017
  • Summary: MEN PUSHING WOODEN CART LOADED WITH BELONGINGS AND CHILD SITTING ON IT, OTHER CIVILIANS WALKING BEHIND HIM CIVILIAN WITH BANDAGED HEAD CARRYING LITTLE CHILD AND WALKING WITH TWO OTHER CHILDREN PAST DAMAGED CARS (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) CARPENTER FROM ZANJILI DISTRICT, BASHAR AHMED SALIH, SAYING: "I went out to bring water from a nearby place. We were about 200 or 250 people and a member of Daesh (Islamic State) walked among us and minutes later a plane struck the crowd. He managed to escape, as we were hurt. Allah (alone) is sufficient for us, and He is the best disposer of affairs (for us)." IRAQI RAPID RESPONSE MEMBER GIVING WATER TO SMALL CHILD CARRIED BY ANOTHER MAN CHILDREN SPRAYING WATER ON THEM FROM BUCKET IN STREET TO COOL OFF CHILD DRINKING WATER FROM TAP OF TANKER AND WASHING HIS FACE, MAN FILLING GLASS WITH WATER FROM TANKER (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) FORMER MEDIC FROM MOSUL AND FATHER OF TWO SONS AND TWO DAUGHTERS, TAHSEEN HASHIM, SAYING: "We were like prisoners. They moved us from one house to another." JOURNALIST ASKING: "Who moved you from house to house? Daesh (Islamic State)?" "Yes." JOURNALIST ASKING:" How many families were in each house?" "Some houses had three or four families, while others had only one. Three or five families depending on the number of families in the area." VARIOUS OF CIVILIANS, INCLUDING CHILDREN AND DISABLED, WALKING ALONG STREET PAST DAMAGED CARS CHILDREN WALKING TOWARD CAMERA AND WAVING
  • Embargoed: 17th June 2017 16:53
  • Keywords: evacuation Old City Iraq displaced Mosul Zanjili district
  • Location: ZANJILI DISTRICT, MOSUL, IRAQ
  • City: ZANJILI DISTRICT, MOSUL, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Military Conflicts
  • Reuters ID: LVA0036JQ46KN
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Hundreds of families fled Mosul's militant-controlled Zanjili district on Saturday (June 3) as fighting between Iraqi forces of Rapid Response Division and Islamic State intensified.
    Carrying their personal belongings, civilians mostly women and children were walking along road littered with damaged and overturned cars and dotted with rubble of destroyed houses.
    At least seven civilians were killed and 23 wounded by Islamic State mortar shells as they tried to flee Mosul's militant-controlled Zanjili district on Thursday (June 1), Iraqi police said.
    The wounded were taken to a field clinic, a police officer told Reuters, adding that more people could have been killed while trying to flee. They were part of the first group of civilians who have managed to escape.
    Zanjili is part of the enclave that remains in the hands of Islamic State in the northern Iraqi city, alongside the Old City centre and the Medical City hospitals complex.
    U.S.-backed Iraqi government forces retook eastern Mosul in January and began a new push last week to capture the enclave where about 200,000 people are trapped, regularly dropping leaflets telling families to flee.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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