ZAKHO – Leadership of the Islamic State (ISIS) started relocating its headquarters in the city of Mosul in Iraq’s northwestern Nineveh province in a bid to minimise losses in its ranks after the US-led coalition intensified its airstrikes on the city, while the Kurdish Peshmerga forces and Iraqi army troops on Sunday continued their advance in Mosul suburb.Activists and eyewitnesses in the city of Mosul –main ISIS bastion in Iraq– reported that the militant group has relocated the centres of al-Hisba police, the Sharia Court, the weapons stores and security headquarters.
“The group has moved those key departments to other districts of Mosul believed to be safer,” media activist Abdullah al-Malla told ARA News in Mosul.
“ISIS has also relocated its weapons arsenal. The new stores are positioned inside populated neighbourhoods that are rarely exposed to airstrikes,” the source reported.
The move comes as an attempt by ISIS to avoid further losses in its ranks, as dozens of its jihadis have been killed recently either under airstrikes by the US-led coalition or under bombardment by the ground troops of the Kurdish Peshmerga and the Iraqi army.
“This procedure by ISIS was expected,” said Raafat al-Zarari, head of Nineveh media centre.
“The group has recently suffered heavy losses in manpower and equipment under airstrikes and shelling, especially after several confidential strongholds for the group in Mosul were uncovered and became an easy target for the coalition and its allies,” al-Zarari told ARA News.