IraqsArabic-language al-Sumaria satellite television network quoted an unnamedsecurity source as saying thatthe Mosul residents on Friday eveningbroke into the city's main prison, located in the eastern part of Mosul, and freed at least 45 prisoners after killing all of the Daesh militants manning the jail.
The development comes as Iraqi army troops, backed by the countrys Hashd al-Shaabi forces, also known as the Popular Mobilization Units, and Kurdish Peshmerga forces, are closing in onDaesh's last strongholdin Iraq from almost all directions in afull-scale operation launchedon October 17 to liberate the city.
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="555"]
An Iraqi army M1 Abrams tank drives through Gogjali as it heads to Mosul on November 4, 2016, during a military operation to retake the main hub city from Daesh terrorists. (Photo by AFP)[/caption]'Daesh killinghundreds, recruiting children'
Meanwhile, UN human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani has announced that the terrorists haveexecuted hundreds of people, including180 former Iraqi government employees who were killed on Wednesday as the Takfiri group waswithdrawing fromGogjalitown.
Citing credible reports, she added that the terrorists also executed 50 desertersat the Ghazlani military base in Mosul on Monday.
Shamdasani, who was speaking on Friday at a regular UN briefing in Geneva, Switzerland, went on to say that Daesh had moved 1,600 people, likely to use them as human shields against airstrikes,from the town of Hammam al-Alil to Tal Afar near Mosul on Tuesday,and told them they might be taken to Syria.
She also warned that Daesh was trying to recruit children, particularly boys above the age of nine, in Hammam al-Alil as the group was increasingly losing its adult terrorists in clashes with the Iraqitroops.
They've been knocking on people's doors and asking for their boys, Shamdasani further said, adding that defiant families were threatened with harsh punishment.
The UN official also said that Daesh wascurrently holding about 400 Kurdish, Izadi and Shia women in Tal Afar, and had possibly killed up to 200 people in Mosul.
On Friday, the Iraqi special forces launched an assault to advance deeper into the citys urban center, and engaged in fierce fighting with Daesh terrorists, estimated to number between3,000 and 5,000 inthe sprawling city.
Iraqis fleeing Daesh reunite with families
In another related development, Iraqi civilians fleeing Daesh in Mosul reunited with their families for the first time in more than two years at the al-Khazar camp, to the east of the city, on Friday.
