(Associated Press) The United Nations believes up to 150,000 civilians are trapped in Mosul’s Old City where Islamic State extremists want to keep them as human shields — and are shooting people trying to flee, the U.N. humanitarian chief in Iraq said Friday.
Since October, U.S.-backed Iraqi forces have been battling IS militants in Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city. The extremists now control only a handful of neighborhoods in and around the Old City.
Lise Grande, the U.N. deputy special representative and humanitarian coordinator in Iraq, said in an interview with The Associated Press that the United Nations expects the battle for the Old City to start “within days.”