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UN braces for refugee exodus from Iraq's Mosul

by Reuters
Tuesday, 23 August 2016 16:53 GMT

Kurdish Peshmerga forces gather in a village east of Mosul, Iraq, May 29, 2016. REUTERS/Azad Lashkari

Image Caption and Rights Information

"Up to 1.2 million people could be affected"

(Adds PM Abadi saying Mosul to be captured in 2016)

By Stephanie Nebehay and Stephen Kalin

GENEVA/BAGHDAD, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis in and around Mosul could be uprooted by the military assault to retake the city from Islamic State, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said on Tuesday.

"In Mosul we believe the displacement situation may be about to dramatically worsen," UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards told a briefing in Geneva, saying the agency needed more land for camps.

"The humanitarian impact of the military offensive is expected to be enormous, up to 1.2 million people could be affected."

About 3.4 million people have already been forced by conflict to leave their homes across Iraq, taking refuge in areas controlled by the government or in the Kurdish autonomous region east of Mosul, Islamic State's de facto capital.

With a population at one time as large as 2 million, Mosul is the largest city under the ultra-hardline militants' control in either Iraq or neighbouring Syria.

Iraqi and Kurdish forces are gradually closing in on the city 400 km (250 miles) north of Baghdad, with air and ground support from a U.S.-led coalition.

Its fall would mark the effective defeat of Islamic State in Iraq, according to Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

"Mosul will be liberated in 2016. We have a plan to liberate Nineveh," he told a news conference on Tuesday in Baghdad. Nineveh is the province where Mosul is located and is home to a number of religious and ethnic groups including Christians, Turkmen and Kurds, in addition to Sunni Muslim Arabs.

Abadi said the government was in contact with all sides to find a way to manage Mosul, which he said would be done in cooperation between the federal government, the Kurdistan government, local residents and security forces.

The Iraqi military is battling its way up the Tigris river and has about 60 km (40 miles) left to reach the outskirts of Mosul; Kurdish peshmerga forces are deployed 30 km east of the city.

The Iraqi army said on Tuesday it had clashed with militants in the town of Qayyara, near an air base it plans to use as a main hub to support the Mosul offensive. The army captured the airfield last month and U.S. forces are helping to rehabilitate it. (Additional reporting by Maher Chmaytelli in Baghdad; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Displaced people approach the Kurdish Peshmerga forces on the southeast of Mosul, Iraq, August 14, 2016. REUTERS/Azad Lashkari

With a population at one time as large as 2 million, Mosul is the largest city under the group's control in either Iraq or Syria.

Iraqi and Kurdish forces are gradually closing on the city 400 km (250 miles) north of Baghdad, with air and ground support from a U.S.-led coalition.

Its fall would mark the effective defeat of the ultra-hardline militants in Iraq, according to Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

The Iraqi army is battling its way up the Tigris river and has 60 km (40 miles) left to reach the outskirts of Mosul, while Kurdish Peshmerga forces are deployed 30 km east of the city.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva and Maher Chmaytelli in Baghdad; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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