Chechen child with burns found under rubble in Mosul’s Old City
Chechen girl found under debris in Mosul’s Old City
A statement by the Defense Ministry’s War Media Cell on Saturday said “the army’s 16th division found a Chechen national child while combing al-Shahwaniya region in the Old City.”
The child, who suffered burns, couldn’t speak Arabic well as she was born for Chechen parents. However, she said very few words that indicated her father was killed in an airstrike in the Old City, while the mother blew herself up while the region was combed, the statement added.
The child was taken to hospital for treatment, it added.
Last week, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi arrived in Mosul and congratulated Iraqi forces and citizens on the victory over IS militants who had held the second largest Iraqi city since 2014.
The victory in Mosul comes after eight months of fighting by Iraqi government forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition, against IS militants.
On Saturday, Iraqi Joint Operations Command’s spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Yahia Rasoul, was quoted as saying forces took control over the Old City.
Iraqi troops took over the Old City’s Nuri al-Kabir Mosque, where IS supreme leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi first declared the proclaimed caliphate covering parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014, in late June.