Yazidi girl freed, twenty Islamic State militants killed in Mosul’s Old City
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) A Yazidi girl has been freed, while three Islamic State militants, who attempted killing her while trying to flee Mosul’s Old City, were killed, the War Media Cell reported.
In a statement, the Defense Ministry’s WMC said troops “freed a Yazidi girl and killed three IS fighters who tried to kill her while fleeing toward troops in al-Shahwan region.”
Troops, according to the statement, also killed another 17 IS suicide attackers at the same region.
According to the latest estimate by the Directorate of Yazidi Abductees Affairs in Duhok, more than 6,417 Yazidi persons were freed from IS.
Many Yazidis were persecuted and held in Mosul by Islamic State, which considered them devil-worshippers.
A study on the number of Yazidis affected showed that at least 9,900 of Iraq’s Yazidis were killed or kidnapped in just days in an attack by the militants in 2014.
Iraqi government forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition, have been fighting against IS fighters since mid October. The eastern side of Mosul was recaptured in January after three months of battles. Another offensive was launched in February to retake the western flank of the city. Last week, troops took over the Old City’s Nuri al-Kabir Mosque where IS first declared its self-styled “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria in 2014.