ISIS sets up cachement areas near Syrian border
(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – Islamic State militants are now closing the borders with Syria to prevent their Iraqi fighters from escaping battles to the Syrian city of Raqqa, a senior intelligence officer at al-Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary forces said Tuesday as the extremist group continues to succumb to defeats from attacks by Iraqi joint forces.
Nazem al-Jugheifi, a Hashed al-Shaabi intelligence commander in Haditha, Anbar, said ISIS closed Tuesday the Qaim border crossing with Syria. “With that measure, the group seeks to prevent the escape of its Iraqi fighters and their families from Annah and Qaem to Raqqa in Syria,” he said, referring to ISIS’s stronghold in Syria.
“The group forced its Iraqi members to stay at their locations and fight,” he added.
Security sources in Anbar had told Alsumaria News that ISIS militants and their families had been escaping Annah region to Syria. Other reports had said that the group executed a number of members who failed to stand up to fighting in Mosul.
ISIS has been sustaining severe losses in lives and ground since Iraqi joint forces, assisted by US air forces, launched an offensive in mid October to retake Mosul, the group’s last bastion in Iraq. Security and allied paramilitary forces are also workin g to liberate other areas held by ISiS across the country.
ISIS lists out suicide bombers as inspiration for their prospective dead meat
(IraqiNews.com) Nineveh – The self-proclaimed Islamic State is now revealing the identities and nationalities of its suicide bombers as means to “boost the morales” of its fighters, Alsumaria News reported on Tuesday.
The group has unveiled the identities of 20 suiciders who carried out bombings against security forces in Mosul over the past three days, according to Alsumaria, which explained that those are holding seven Arab and Western nationalities.
“ISIS media outlets intensified its activities over the past hours inside Mosul, especially at districts located on the eastern coast that witness the group’s greatest presence,” Alsumaria said. “ISIS media spelt out the identities of 20 suiciders who carried out booby-trapped vehicles and explosive belt attacks on several security locations over the past 72 hours.”
“Those included an Emirati national for the first time, nicknamed Abu Khattab,” Alsumaria explained. “Through declaring the identities of their suiciders, ISIS are seeking to raise the devastated morales of their fighters caused by the flagrant losses they had sustained in several cities and villages,” Alsumaria added.
Iraqi joint forces and US aircraft continue operations to liberate Mosul from ISIS. The campaign has been largely successful so far with the group reportedly losing a lot of ground and lives.
ISIS seeks to bribe Hawija residents with supplies
"God Bless the child who got his own..."
(IraqiNews.com) Kirkuk – Islamic State militants are trying to gain favor with the people of Hawijah, Kirkuk, with goods as a way to reduce their indiginance on the militant group, Alsumaria News reported on Tuesday.
“ISIS are trying to gain the sympathy of Hawijah people by giving out a bar of soap and half a kilo of lentil,” Alsumaria said, adding that people are shunning the fighters’ advances.
Alsumaria added that the group is possibly preempting any attempts by civilians to attack its members or locations.
The group’s so-called “Diwan al-Mal” (treasury), providing the supplies to citizens, urged them not to give ear to news about the fall of ‘the state of Nineveh.
The group took photos of the supplies to its sympathizers to give an impression that it provides food supplies to residents of the area, Alsumaria explained.
“Humanitarian conditions in the area are worsening due to hiking prices of food supplies, with all roads linking the area with Nineveh and Salahuddin cut,” Alsumaria added.
Hawijah fell to ISIS in June 2014, becoming one of its most important havens after Mosul. Many families of ISIS fighters have reportedly abandoned houses in the area they had previously taken over as Irai security and paramilitary forces advance towards the city to liberate it.
100 executed found in Hammam Al-Alil
(IraqiNews.com) Nineveh – One hundred headless dead bodies were found inside the Faculty of Agriculture south of Mosul, Nineveh, as federal police toured the liberated neighborhood of Hammam Al-Alil, media officials with the Ministry of Defense reported.
“Iraqi forces, having liberated Hamam al-Alil neighborhood, and inside the Faculty of Agriculture, ran into a new crime discovering one hundred dead bodies of citizens,” the officials reported, blaming the massacre on extremist Islamic State fighters.
“Specialized teams will be sent to investigate that heinous crime,” said the officials.
Since it took vast parts of Iraq in 2014, ISIS has become notorious for beheadings and brutal executions of its local opponents and foreign workers, posting shocking footage of the executions on its internet outlets.
The city of Mosul is currently the stage for battles between ISIS fighters and Iraqi joint forces seeking to clear the city of ISIS. Mosul is centrepiece of ISIS’s proclaimed “Caliphate”, but the group ceded reference to the city as ts capital under the brunt of losses it has sustained due to the security offensive.
Civilians flee ISIS held Raqqa for Syrian rebel lines
[ARA News] Raqqa – Hundreds of displaced civilians have arrived in areas recently captured by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), having fled from the Raqqa’s countrywide. These Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) have suffered extreme deprivations.
This internal migration comes just two days after the SDF, a pluralist secular coalition, launched the Euphrates Wrath Operation. The campaign’s ultimate goal is the isolation and capture of Raqqa city – the Islamic State’s (ISIS) de facto capital in Syria.
Civilians in Raqqa countryside have reportedly begun evacuating their villages to avoid being used as human shields by ISIS militants. The SDF has reminded civilians to be cautious as jihadists have a long history of using human shields.
Each IDP has his or her own harrowing story of flight. Those who spoke to ARA News described starvation, fuel shortages and extreme forms of persecution in the would-be Caliphate.
Fatima, a 44-year-old woman from Raqqa, told ARA News: “After violence intensified in our area, we escaped. We came here looking for safety.”
Since the launch of the Euphrates Wrath Operation on Sunday, the Syrian Democratic Forces have captured 11 villages in an area measuring approximately 15 km².
The SDF General Command told ARA News that ISIS has retreated from major parts of Raqqa’s northern countryside. Rather than trying to stand their ground, the extremist group is now relying on mines, car bombs and suicide squads.
Speaking to ARA News, several SDF officers expressed concern for the endangered civilian population. They believe that the number of displaced civilians may increase dramatically once their fighters push into the Raqqa city.
Khalil Muhammed a 61-year-old IDP from Raqqa, told ARA News: “We thank the SDF for helping us. We’ve arrived at the safe haven now. We have suffered a lot.”
Video report at the link
More on Mass Graves from Arab News
BASHIQA, Iraq: Iraqi Kurdish forces have seized the town of Bashiqa near Mosul from Daesh, an official said Tuesday.
Capturing Bashiqa would be a final step in securing the eastern approaches to Mosul, three weeks into an offensive by Iraqi forces to retake the country’s second city.
Iraqi troops have also seized the town of Hamam Al-Alil, south of Mosul, and Tuesday investigators carried out an initial examination of a mass grave site discovered in the area.
Bashiqa was under the “complete control” of Kurdish peshmerga forces, Jabbar Yawar, secretary general of the Kurdish regional ministry responsible for the fighters, said.
“Our forces are clearing mines and sweeping the city,” Yawar said.
An AFP correspondent on the outskirts of Bashiqa said clashes were ongoing, with three air strikes hitting the town and gunfire and an explosion heard.
The peshmerga said there were still some suicide bombers and snipers there, and that about five percent of Bashiqa remained under terrorists’ control.
Iraqi forces have been tightening the noose around Mosul since launching the offensive on October 17, with elite troops last week breaching city limits.
Iraqi forces scored another victory against Daesh on Monday by establishing full control over Hamam Al-Alil, about 15 km from the edge of Mosul and the last town of note on the way to the city from the south.
They said a mass grave was found at an agricultural college in the area, with the offensive’s Joint Operations Command saying “100 bodies of citizens with their heads cut off” had been uncovered.
An AFP journalist Tuesday said body parts and bones were visible among rubbish dumped there.
Men in Iraqi security forces uniforms used ropes to pull two bodies, one headless, from the grave, and also removed a decapitated head.
“Today, the team conducted an initial examination,” said Mohammed Taher Al-Tamimi, an Iraqi Cabinet official.
Al-Tamimi said the victims had been blindfolded with their hands and feet bound.
He said around 25 bodies were initially visible, but investigators believed there “very large numbers” of corpses there.
Dhiyab Tareq, a 32-year-old from the area, said he had heard shots when Daesh carried out executions at the site.
“I was sitting close to the door and heard the gunshots,” Tareq said, adding that the next day Daesh members boasted about killing security forces members.
Daesh’s rule has been marked by atrocities including mass beheadings and other executions that it has documented in photos and videos that its supporters share online.
The United Nations said Tuesday that terrorists’ “forcibly moved about 1,500 families from Hamam Al-Alil town to Mosul airport” on November 4.
The UN has warned for weeks that Daesh is making civilians living in districts around Mosul move into the city.