42,000 displaced in Mosul assault

Nearly 42,000 people have fled their homes since last month's start of the operation to recapture Mosul from the Islamic State group, the International Organization for Migration said yesterday.

Aid organisations have warned that more than a million people could be displaced in the battle for Mosul, and while it has not yet reached that scale, the numbers are growing.

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The IOM said on its displacement tracking web page that 41,988 people have been "displaced as a result of the ongoing Mosul operations which began on 17 October 2016."

That was an increase of more than 7,000 from the figure the IOM gave the previous day.

The IOM said a significant part of that increase was the result of new counts of people who were already present in camps, though more were also still arriving.

While the worst-case scenario has not materialised so far, Iraqi forces have yet to push deep into the city, and the number of people fleeing could increase dramatically when that occurs.

Both Mosul residents and the United Nations have reported that IS has forcibly gathered civilians for possible use as human shields.

IS militants have displayed the crucified bodies of five people they said gave information to "the enemy", and are back on the city streets policing the length of men's beards, residents say.

The five bodies were put on display at a road junction, a clear message to the city's remaining 1.5 million residents that the ultra-hardline Islamists are still in charge, despite losing territory to the east of the city, reports Reuters.

Thousands of Islamic State fighters have run Mosul, the largest city under their control in Iraq and neighbouring Syria, since they conquered large parts of northern Iraq in 2014.

They are now battling a 100,000-strong coalition including Iraqi troops, security forces, Kurdish peshmerga and mainly Shia paramilitary groups, which has almost surrounded the city and has broken into eastern neighbourhoods.

COALITION RAID RAQA

Meanwhile, A US-led coalition air strike killed 20 civilians, including two children, overnight in a village near the Islamic State jihadist group's Syrian stronghold of Raqa, a monitor said yesterday.

The coalition confirmed that it had carried out strikes in the area, but said it was investigating whether they had killed civilians.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said dozens of people were also wounded in the strikes Tuesday night on the village of Al-Heisha, 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Raqa.

"The toll has risen to 20 civilians, including nine women and two children," Observatory chief Rami Abdul Rahman said.

The monitor had earlier given a death toll of 16.

Abdul Rahman said 32 people were also injured in the strikes, adding that all the casualties were civilians.

The Observatory said the latest deaths brought the number of civilians killed since US-led air strikes in Syria began in September 2014 to 680, including 169 children.

Al-Heisha is controlled by IS and has been a target in a new assault by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) as it pushes to capture the jihadists' bastion of Raqa.

Colonel John Dorrian, a spokesman for the coalition, told AFP that an "initial assessment" confirmed there had been strikes in the area.

"After an initial assessment of strike logs against the date and location of the alleged civilian casualties, the coalition confirms it did conduct strikes in the area described in the allegation," he said.

"However, more specific information is needed to conclusively determine responsibility."

He said investigations would continue into the incident and stressed that coalition forces adhere to "stringent targeting processes and procedures" to minimise civilian casualties.

A spokeswoman for the Kurdish-Arab alliance, however, dismissed the reports of civilian deaths.

"There is no such thing, and any such claims are IS news," Jihan Sheikh Ahmed told AFP.

The SDF's media account said at least six IS fighters were killed by coalition air strikes on the village and accused the extremist group of preventing civilians from leaving Al-Heisha in a bid to use them as "human shields".