50,000 Iraqis return to homes in war-battered E. Mosul

By Muayyad al-Tarfi

BAGHDAD (AA) - Almost 50,000 displaced people have returned to their homes in eastern Mosul and the city’s southern Qayyarah district, both of which were recently recaptured by the Iraqi army from the Daesh terrorist group, according to Iraq’s Displacement and Migration Ministry.

"The ministry is trying to persuade displaced people to leave the camps and return to liberated areas so the camps might be used to accommodate those expected to be displaced in upcoming operations to retake western Mosul," ministry spokesman Sattar Nowruz told Anadolu Agency.

"Efforts to provide displaced people with the necessary humanitarian aid remain ongoing," he added.

Since the beginning of army operations to retake Mosul, more than 187,000 people have been displaced from the city’s eastern districts.

Last week, the Iraqi army announced the "total liberation" of eastern Mosul -- after three months of fighting -- from the grip of Daesh terrorists.

Last October, the Iraqi army -- backed by a U.S.-led air coalition and local allies on the ground -- began a wide-ranging campaign to retake Mosul, which Daesh overran in mid-2014.