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Iraq: Return to Mosul Deutsche Welle IS has been forced to retreat in Iraq. The Iraqi army has managed to liberate eastern Mosul from the terrorist organization. Many people who fled Iraq's second largest city are now returning home. Starving lion and bear only survivors of Iraq zoo used by ISIS as a base for terrorismMirror.co.uk Deadly Suicide Bombings In Iraq - LEX18.com | Continuous News and StormTracker WeatherLEX18 Lexington KY News Pet pigeons take flight in Iraq as militants retreatWisconsin Gazette The Indian Express all 20 news articles »

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Lawmaker and human rights activist from Iraq speaks out against President Trump's travel ban Rare.us A Yazidi lawmaker and human rights activist from Iraq visited the United States this week to receive a prestigious human rights award. According to the Religious News Service, Vian Dakhil, the only Yazidi member of Iraq Parliament, received the Lantos ... and more »

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Lawmaker and human rights activist from Iraq speaks out against President Trump's travel ban - Rare.us

SOUTHWEST ASIA, Feb. 10, 2017 U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Iraq and Syria yesterday, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

Officials reported details of the latest strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.

Strikes in Syria

Attack, bomber, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 14 strikes in 28 engagements in Syria:

-- Near Abu Kamal, two strikes destroyed 23 oil storage tanks, two oil tanker trucks and an oil wellhead.

-- Near Raqqa, 10 strikes engaged two ISIL tactical units; destroyed five tunnels, three vehicles, two mortar systems and a fighting position; and damaged three supply routes.

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, a strike destroyed an oil wellhead.

-- Near Palmyra, a strike destroyed a vehicle bomb factory

Strikes in Iraq

Fighter and remotely piloted aircraft and artillery conducted nine strikes in 34 engagements in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraqs government:

-- Near Kisik, one strike engaged an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed a supply cache.

-- Near Mosul, four strikes, engaged an ISIL tactical unit and an ISIL mortar team; destroyed a vehicle and a vehicle bomb; damaged eight supply routes; and suppressed 15 mortar teams.

-- Near Qayyarah, two strikes destroyed a weapons cache and damaged four supply routes.

-- Near Qaim, two strikes engaged two ISIL tactical units and destroyed three vehicles.

Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target. Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike.

Part of Operation Inherent Resolve

The strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to eliminate the ISIL terrorist group and the threat they pose to Iraq, Syria, and the wider international community. The destruction of ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq further limits the terrorist group's ability to project terror and conduct operations, officials said.

Coalition nations that have conducted strikes in Iraq include the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Coalition nations that have conducted strikes in Syria include the United States, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, France, Jordan, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.

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Officials Provide Details of Latest Counter-ISIL Strikes in Syria, Iraq - Department of Defense

Mariko Miller, a nurse working with MSF in Kirkuk, in northern Iraq.

Mariko Miller is a Canadian emergency nurse working with Mdecins Sans Frontires (MSF) in Kirkuk, in northern Iraq, where MSF teams are providing healthcare to people forced from their homes by armed conflict, and supportingemergency care in two hospitals.

Many of the displaced people come from Hawija, a district southwest of Kirkuk that has been under the control of armed groups for more than two years. Since the intensification of military operations to retake the district in August last year, it is estimated by the UNHCR that more than 80,000 Iraqis have fled Hawija. Many families tell us about lack of food and fuel in the area, and about perilous journeys to reach safety. However, despite the scale of people's needs, humanitarian assistance remains largely insufficient.

Mariko shares her account of assisting people arriving in Kirkuk:

"There are eyes darting around me in a crowd with a vigilance I haven't seen before, and I'm watching a little boy in his mother's arms. His hands are desperately grasping at the air around him with an acute hunger that is painful to watch. There is a packet of biscuits in a box in front of him and I watch his eyes focus on them. He grabs the biscuit, then struggles with the plastic wrapper, and this image of him stays in my mind. He is too young to be so hungry, too young to understand the decisions his family had to make to survive, or how this journey will define his future. Around him people are scattered in groups on the ground, huddled around boxes of food, eating desperately after six days of hunger and two years of suffering in areas under the control of armed groups.

The boy is among 647 people who have arrived safely from Hawija, a place suffocated by suffering. All these new arrivals chose to leave Hawija and undertake a journey that some people don't survive. The other night many families were executed after being caught trying to escape. Those who make it out of the town have to travel 7 kilometres at night through a desert scattered with landmines and improvised explosive devices, where snipers sometimes hit their mark. They have taken a calculated risk, knowing that they might die. But the people in front of me have made it, they are alive.

Many women who come to see me cry as they talk about the people they left behind in an area that is being hit by aerial strikes and where an offensive is expected. One young woman lost her entire family yesterday when they stepped on a landmine in the dark, and her grief is palpable, horrifying. There are many other people who sit silently, self-protective, eyes averted, eyes that have seen more than eyes ever should, in a state of shock that feels impenetrable, yet necessary, because they are not yet free. They must still survive.

There is an older man who sits alone, short of breath and with a loud audible wheeze. I am giving him some Ventolin so he can breathe, but instead of breathing better, he starts to cry, and tears fall.His son is in Hawija. This is all he needs to say.

Sometimes the hardest thing is to hear these stories and to maintain a professional composure. When I feel the tears build behind my eyes I don't know what to say other than, "Inshallah, [God willing] your son will arrive safely". The man looks at me with glassy eyes, repeats, "Inshallah" and looks up at the sky.

Two small children lost their mother in a landmine explosion yesterday. The air I breathe is blanketed in suffering, and it is shedding layer after complicated layer all over the land.

There is an eight-year-old boy whose little sister is sick. He says he has not slept in days because at night the women sleep, and the young boys keep guard. He is serious and strong, his emotions flat. I see children hiding food in their pockets, and the sight of this hurts because they are still in survival mode.

This week, several children have arrived with blast injuries and our doctor has removed shrapnel and metal from little limbs. The team has safely referred these children to the emergency hospital in Kirkuk, which MSF is supporting. We see only the ones who make it, the ones who have survived the perilous journey and reached the entry points beyond the frontline, and we know there are many who have been left behind.

At a different entry point, a young man collapses as he climbs from a truck. He is unresponsive and pale, but alive. He is carried to our clinic and, while I grind my knuckles into his sternum to get him to respond, I see tears spill out from the corners of his eyes. He lies on my floor, weeping, until finally he is able to sit up. He tells me how his parents were killed recently and his brother is in Hawija. His wife is pregnant with their first child and he feels overwhelmed by uncertainty. We sit on the clinic floor together and his pregnant wife joins us and they cry together. He thinks that I have saved his life and, with clasped hands, he tells me he will pray for me every night. His courage overwhelms me.

We are building our project from the ground up, and we are preparing for the days to come. We have started training staff in the main emergency hospitals and we are gaining access at entry points to provide a response for war-wounded and emergency arrivals. Our medical teams are growing quickly to build capacity, and the solidarity of the team makes it easy. Humanitarianism and medicine intersect here and remind us of MSF's identity. The need for our presence here is obvious. The gratitude from our patients is humbling and, as heavy as the air is in pockets here, we are all exactly where we need to be."

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Iraq: Assisting people displaced from Hawija - Mdecins Sans Frontires (MSF) International

The battle to retake Mosul, Iraqs second-largest city, from ISIS is underway. Iraqi forces with backing from the U.S. have retaken the east bank of the city. A renewed push to take back the more heavily populated west bank will begin soon.

Fighting is expected to be ferocious, with heavy casualties among civilians and Iraqi soldiers, and destruction of the citys infrastructure.

The liberation of Mosul will not be complete with the military operations that oust ISIS. Failing to get the civilian response right risks a short-term pyrrhic victory and widening civil war in Iraq.

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This should concern the U.S., as instability in Iraq threatens U.S. foreign policy interests in the Middle East and violence that continues to create large numbers of refugees.

Steps are required to manage the needs of displaced civilians and get them back home. Since the start of the conflict with ISIS, a peak of 3.4 million Iraqi civilians were displaced by violence, and 3 million remain displaced today. An additional half million people may be displaced during the fight to take back remaining parts of Mosul.

On our recent trips to Erbil and Baghdad, where the military and humanitarian responses to Mosul are being managed, we spoke with numerous stakeholders and identified key challenges that will need to be resolved to stabilize Mosul and get its civilians back home.

Related: Trump: Iraq launched Mosul offensive to make Hillary look good

The government of Iraq is sending displaced persons from Mosul into camps instead of allowing them to move to other urban areas due to concerns that there might be ISIS collaborators among the displaced.

The civilians identification documents are taken from them for as long as they stay in the camp. They are permitted to return to their homes when it is considered safe, but widespread destruction of public, residential, commercial and agricultural infrastructure means that it may be years before they can go home.

While security concerns are understandable, a solution must be found that respects international norms against holding displaced civilians in detention.

We visited two emergency camps a short distance from Mosul. Khazer is a tent city of over 32,000 people, next to Hassan Sham with a similar number. Despite the valiant efforts of aid workers to supply basic needs, these emergency camps are not equipped to house Iraqis for more than a few months.

Girls cover their ears as a helicopter strafes nearby buildings in a street behind the frontline in the Intisar neighborhood of Mosul, Iraq, on November 13, 2016. Shelly Culbertson and Linda Robinson write that 3 million displaced Iraqis are living in flimsy tents without electricity, only outdoor pumps for water, no 24-hour health care services and no spaces, where people could prepare hot food, community activities and psychosocial treatment. These traumatized people fear for their futures. Chris McGrath/Getty

In addition to the flimsy tents without electricity, only outdoor pumps for water, no 24-hour healthcare services, and no spaces where people could prepare hot food, community activities and psychosocial treatment is lacking for these traumatized people who fear for their futures.

Indeed, conditions in parts of Mosul and nearby liberated villages are not safe for civilians to return to because of the heavy levels of explosive remnants of war. ISIS heavily mined public buildings, homes and fields. We heard anecdotes of baby cribs with booby-traps. One village of 450 families had 550 mines.

The water treatment plant in Bartallah is so heavily mined that it will need to be detonated rather than cleared. Demining is an expensive and dangerous process. U.N. agencies and the U.S.government are funding demining in targeted ways, but greater investment in demining is essential to promote early and safe return of civilians.

In Mosul and nearby villages, basic public services, such as water and sanitation, healthcare and education, need to resume. Yet destroyed infrastructure and the thousands of public sector employees who fled mean that resumption will be no quick or easy task.

For example, six of Mosuls 12 hospitals have been destroyed. Many health care workers and teachers have fled. While United Nations agencies and implementing nongovernmental organizations have labored intensely to meet basic needs with temporary assistance, we see a gap in supporting Iraqi government services. For example, hospitals treating trauma in the nearby city of Erbil are overflowing to the extent that they cannot provide treatment in a timely manner for their own city residents.

After the immediate humanitarian needs are met, it will be important to shift responsibility, assistance and capacity building to Iraqi institutions, so that they have the means to take over and care for their own.

Finally, resumption of normality and daily life depends on civilians feeling safe and repairing relations among different ethnic communities. This requires a trained and adequately staffed police force that can maintain security in the street, behave according to standard principles of community policing, and gain the trust of fellow citizens that they will not behave in retaliatory or arbitrary ways.

The officials that we interviewed noted a need for at least 25,000 trained Iraqi police to fulfill these duties in Mosul. However only 12,000 have received any sort of training at all.

Security among the population also depends upon a reconciliation process among differing communities from Mosuls multiethnic communities. Less than 3 percent of the stabilization program funded by the U.S. and coalition partners is devoted to social cohesion efforts. A priest who runs a settlement of displaced Christians told us that very few if any of them anticipate going home because of fears of relations with other communities.

Meeting all of these challenges in a way that sets the city of Mosul and its surroundings on a path to stability and future prosperity is a tall order.

It depends upon just and competent leadership from the government of Iraq.

It requires security forces to comport themselves in ways that respect human rights. It depends on United Nations leadership to manage many of the technical issues of stabilization.

And it also depends upon the intellectual and diplomatic leadership of the U.S., a role that no other entity can fill.

At a time when it may be easier for the U.S. to focus its attention within its own borders, it is important to remember that U.S. leadership can make a difference to these displaced civilians while protecting U.S. national interests.

Shelly Culbertson is a policy analyst and Linda Robinson is a senior international policy analyst at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation.

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What Will Trump Do About Iraq's Displaced Millions? - Newsweek