Official: booby-trapped houses hinder Nineveh refugees repatriation
Smoke rises from clashes in the Old City of Mosul, Iraq June 27, 2017. REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Officials in Nineveh have said that booby-traps planted by Islamic State militants still hinder the repatriation of civilians displaced by battles between the group and security forces.
Abdul-Rahman al-Wakka’, a member of the Nineveh province council, told Almaalomah website that Islamic State militants had booby-trapped several houses in the Old City district before they fled.
“Engineering teams continue to dismantle the explosives, but the houses need more efforts and international backing to hasten the deactivation of house boobytrap to which owners want to return,” the official said.
Late last month, Nour-Eddin Qablan, deputy chairman of the Nineveh province council, told Alghad Press that 40% of displaced civilians returned to their homes, but also complained that the rehabilitation of basic services proceeding slower than needed.
The number of refugees from Nineveh, Kirkuk’s Hawija and Salahuddin’s Shirqat since the launch of anti-IS operations in 2016 reached 1.074.91, Migration and Displacement Minister Jassem al-Jaff, said in September.
The war against Islamic State militants, who took over large areas of Iraq in 2014, has displaced nearly three million people, according to Iraqi government figures.
The Iraqi government plans to repatriate all refugees by the end of 2017.
Iraqi forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition and paramilitary troops, recaptured Mosul from IS militants early July.