DOHUK, Kurdistan Region – About 150 families have been fleeing daily from Mosul to the Kurdistan Region for the past month – an unprecedented number – security officials said Tuesday.
The new influx began after Iraqi warplanes dropped leaflets on the ISIS stronghold in Iraq on July 4, promising an assault to recapture the city.
“Your armed forces are at the gate, cooperate with them,” the leaflets urged residents, who have been living under the ISIS sword since the militants captured the city in June last year.
Coalition air power destroyed an ISIS factory in Mosul last week, adding to the growing public panic over an imminent offensive. Military sources told Rudaw that the targeted factory was used to make explosives and car bombs.
“I travelled to Turkey through Syria first and then entered the Kurdistan Region,” said a young refugee from Mosul who journeyed for more than 1,500 kilometers to arrive in the Kurdish city of Dohuk. He agreed to speak to Rudaw TV on condition that his identity would be concealed.
“Life is unbearable in Mosul: people are afraid, ISIS arrests residents indiscriminately,” the young man recounted, saying he feared for the safety of family left behind in Mosul.
On Sunday, an unnamed source at Mosul’s state hospital told Rudaw that the group had executed 10 former Iraqi army officers on charges of espionage.
A day later, Iraq received the first four F-16 fighter jets bought from the United States, adding further to speculation that an assault to liberate the city would happen soon.
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