Some repatriated Mosul families leave again over war remnants
Displaced families. File photo.
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) Some displaced families who have been repatriated to their home regions in Mosul are leaving again, feeling a threat from unexploded remnants of Iraqi troops’ war against Islamic State militants.
A security source told Shafaq News that nearly 20 families from Mesherfa region, west of Mosul, left the area again after they had run into unexploded rockets and IEDs used by Islamic State members during battles.
The munitions have not been cleared although the area was recaptured by security forces two months earlier.
The war against IS in Mosul, which launched in October 2016 to retake Iraq’s second largest city, had displaced nearly one million civilians. More than four millions have been displaced since Islamic State declared a self-styled “caliphate” in Iraq in 2014, according to government and United Nations figures.
Last Wednesday, the Iraqi Ministry of Migration and Displacement said over 250,000 displaced civilians had returned to Mosul. In mid July, the migration ministry said the government was planning to repatriate more than 1.5 million people displaced from the war in Mosul within 200 days
The Iraqi Joint Operation Command said last month, following the liberation of Mosul, that more than 1400 civilians had been killed throughout Mosul operations, in addition to more than 25.000 militants.