UN asks Abadi to adopt effective measures to protect civilians in Mosul

(AhlulBayt News Agency) - The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) has called on Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to adopt effective measures to protect civilians in Mosul as Iraqi forces battle to retake the northern city from ISIS terrorists.

The UNAMI Human Rights Office said on Saturday that it has documented serious crimes and atrocities being perpetrated by ISIS terrorists against Mosul residents in the form of disappearance, murder, restrictions on the free movement of people, rape and sexual slavery in addition to the use of boys as young as 11 in the armed conflict, Arabic-language al-Sumaria television network reported.

The UN mission noted that the Baghdad government must take procedures and measures, which are meant to defend civilians and place humanitarian interests on a higher priority than military ones.

The UN mission also praised orders by Abadi and President of Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Masoud Barzani concerning the protection of civilians during the Mosul operation, stressing that its staffers are investigating sporadic cases of mistreatment by Iraqi forces and allied fighters towards civilians.

Earlier on October 21, Iraq's most prominent Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani urged army soldiers and volunteer fighters to protect civilians trapped in ISIS-held Mosul, located 400 kilometers north of the capital, Baghdad.

Meanwhile, Brigadier General Yahya Rasool, the spokesman for the Iraqi Joint Military Command (JOC), said soldiers from the 9th Armored Division plus the Third Brigade of the First Division have killed and wounded 30 ISIS terrorist during Saturday’s offensive to liberate Mosul’s eastern neighborhood of Salam.

A local source, requesting anonymity, also said 20 internally displaced people have sustained injuries as ISIS extremists struck their gathering in eastern Mosul.

The commander of Nineveh Liberation Operation, General Abdul Amir Rashid Yarallah, also announced that Iraqi counter-terrorism forces had established control over Arabjiyah and Qadisiyah al-Thaniyah areas in eastern Mosul. He added that tens of ISIS terrorists had been killed in the process.



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