More than 70 victims killed by Islamic State found in western Mosul

Mosul (IraqiNews.com) More than 70 bodies, likely to be killed while attempting to flee the Islamic State’s grip, were found in the northwest of Mosul’s Old City, an informed medical source said.

Ambulance and forensic medicine doctors recovered 74 bodies that were on streets in al-Zanjili district, northwest of Mosul, the source told Shafaq News on Monday.

The bodies, according to the source, were decayed. Most of the victims were women and children who were killed by IS militants while trying to flee the region, which was previously controlled by the militants.

Last week, Iraqi forces and the U.S.-led coalition expected complete takeover of Mosul within few days after joint troops managed to liberate the Old City’s Nuri al-Kabir Mosque, the place where IS supreme leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed the establishment of a “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria in 2014.

Counter-Terrorism Service Commander Abdul-Ghani al-Assadi was quoted on Friday as saying there were Only between 200 and 300 IS fighters were remaining in the city, adding that the forces reached the western bank of the Tigris River. Government troops regained control over the eastern part of the city in January after three months of fighting. Another offensive was launched in February to retake the western flank of the city.