Video: IS militant forcibly using Iraqi child as human shield in Mosul
A sniper of the Iraqi Federal Police takes his position at a destroyed builiding near Islamic State fighters’ positions at Bab al Jadid district in the old city of Mosul, Iraq, March 27, 2017. REUTERS/Youssef Boudlal
On its facebook page, the Federal Police command explained that the video, apparently filmed through a combat equipment, was shot during fights with IS members in central Mosul’s Old City district.
Iraqi forces, backed by a U.S.-led international coalition, recaptured eastern Mosul in January after three months of fighting to retake the city that fell to Islamic State extremists in 2014. The government launched a new offensive in February to retake the city’s western side.
Police and supporting forces said recently they became closer to the Old City’s Nuri al-Kabir mosque, where IS supreme leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared the establishment of the group’s rule in Iraq and Syria. They had earlier recaptured the city’s airport and biggest military base besides several other districts since the launch of the campaign. The army’s leadership said recently government troops became in control over 50 percent of the region.
The United Nations, Iraqi generals and aid groups have accused IS of using civilians as human shields. Iraqi commanders said the practice was behind recent casualties in western Mosul blamed on coalition airstrikes,