Ahmed Qassim and Farhat Shakir
NINEVEH, Iraq (AA) - Daesh militants Thursday began evicting civilian residents of Mosul’s eastern districts from their homes in anticipation of a renewed assault by Iraqi forces, according to an Iraqi security source.
"We have received intelligence from our sources inside Mosul that Daesh has been ordering residents of the Al-Mithaq, Al-Mualimeen, Al-Tameem, Al-Bakr and Muroor districts to leave their homes within 48 hours," Mazen al-Mallah, a police officer with Iraq’s Interior Ministry, told Anadolu Agency.
"The militants are threatening to kill anyone who fails to follow their orders," al-Mallah said, adding that Daesh had also begun booby-trapping the city’s streets.
On Wednesday, Iraq’s anti-terrorism agency temporarily suspended military operations in eastern districts of Daesh-held Mosul, while stressing that Iraqi forces would not be withdrawn from the area.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity, an Iraqi army officer attributed the move to stiff resistance by Daesh and the terrorist group’s practice of using civilians as "human shields".
The same source also voiced dissatisfaction with air cover being provided to Iraqi forces in and around Mosul by a 60-nation U.S.-led air coalition.
In a related development on Thursday, the army announced that Iraqi military planes had dropped millions of leaflets over Mosul urging local residents to prepare for an anti-Daesh "uprising".
For more than three weeks, the army -- backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes and local allies on the ground -- has waged a wide-ranging campaign aimed at retaking Mosul, which Daesh overran in mid-2014.