Iraq: U.N. Expects Evacuation of Hundreds of Thousands from Islamic State Holdouts

Hundreds of thousands of civilians are expected to flee Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) holdouts in Iraq as U.S.-backed local forces intensify the pressure against the jihadist group, according to the United Nations.

Now that U.S.-backed local forces liberated Mosul, they are preparing to push ISIS out of Tal Afar, considered the terrorist group’s largest remaining stronghold in northwestern Iraq; Hawija in southeast Kirkuk province; and the western Anbar province.

“The U.N.’s humanitarian aid coordinator for Iraq says aid providers are bracing for the possible evacuation of hundreds of thousands of civilians as Iraqi forces prepare for the ‘imminent’ start of three operations against Islamic State holdouts,” reports the Associated Press (AP).

Although the fighting for Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, has ended, “the humanitarian crisis in Mosul is not” over, Grande told reporters Tuesday.

Grande revealed that ISIS had displaced nearly 956,000 people from Mosul alone during the nine months of fighting. The majority, more than 700,000, remained displaced even after the liberation of Mosul.

Overall, an estimated 3.3 million people remain displaced from their homes across Iraq.

As the fight to oust ISIS from Mosul reached its climax this year, Bruno Geddo, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) representative in Iraq, told reporters, “People are trapped in the Old City in that situation of panic and penury may inevitably lead to the cork popping somewhere, sometime, presenting us with a fresh [refugee] outflow of large-scale proportions. The worst is yet to come.”

ISIS has suffered significant losses at the hands of the U.S.-led coalition and its local allies in recent months.

Nevertheless, the group is believed to control still about 20 percent of the estimated 35,000 square miles it held at its peak in early 2015.

“ISIS has dug tunnels between most villages and has made preparations. They have made more preparations for this war [in Tal Afar] than they did for Mosul offensive and this is because fighting is their only way,” Haider Waili, an Iraqi military intelligence officer, told Rudaw.

The campaign against ISIS has “dramatically accelerated” under President Donald Trump’s watch, recently revealed Brett McGurk, the State Department’s special envoy to the anti-ISIS coalition, adding that “nearly 30 percent of all the territory that has been retaken from ISIS … has actually happened in the last six months.”

Steps Trump has taken, including delegating decision-making authority down to military officials on the battlefield, have fueled the U.S.-led coalition’s gains against ISIS jihadists, according to McGurk.