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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

More than 100 civilians killed in Mosul blast

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Baghdad: More than 100 civilians were killed in a powerful explosion in a residential area of Mosul, where Iraq is battling to drive out IS from its last key stronghold in the country, an army officer and an activist said on Thursday.


Brigadier Mohammed al Jabouri, a commander in the Mosul campaign, said that 108 bodies had been retrieved. Information about the blast, believed to have taken place late on Wednesday, only emerged on Thursday.


Al Jabouri said that the explosion in the area of Mosulal-Jadida, close to western Mosul, was a result of booby traps set by IS.


Independent activist platform Mosul Eye put the toll at 130, including children and women, and spoke of a double bombing in the area.


IS militants had forced the civilians inside three houses and placed two car bombs outside, as the group’s snipers perched atop buildings in the area, Mosul Eye reported.


An unidentified plane hit one of those cars, triggering the explosion, and the second one went off subsequently, according to Mosul Eye.


It said that Iraq’s federal police forces also fired rockets at the site.


Footage posted online showed rescue teams struggling to recover bodies from the rubble of destroyed buildings.


On February 19, Iraqi forces started a US-backed operation to drive IS from the western section of Mosul, almost a month after they had dislodged the extremists from the eastern side of the city.


The operation to retake western Mosul is complicated because of the population density and narrow, congested streets.


In recent weeks, the Iraqi government forces’ progress has been slowed down by IS’s trademark car bombings and sniper fire, as well as the tens of thousands of trapped civilians.


Some 400,000 people are unable to leave the Old City of Mosul as the Iraqi army tries to capture the area that is still under IS control, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said on Thursday.


IS fighters threaten to shoot anyone who leaves, but some try to flee anyway at dawn, at night or during prayers, UNHCR’s Iraq operations chief Bruno Gedda said in the Hammam al Alil refugee camp,south of Mosul.


“People chose the risk of dying by fleeing Mosul rather than the risk of dying from hunger,” he told reporters in Geneva by telephone.


Those who remain have almost nothing left to eat and have to burn furniture and clothes to stay warm during heavy rains and cold nights, Gedda said. — dpa


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