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By John Davison | MOSUL AIRPORT, Iraq

MOSUL AIRPORT, Iraq Outside a mosque on the edge of Mosul airport's ripped up runway, Iraqis made homeless by war sit on suitcases, taking a brief rest before beginning their onward journey, on foot or in buses.

Men push wheelchairs carrying elderly relatives or carts loaded with small children over dusty and uneven ground, part of an exodus of people who have escaped from Islamic State's last major Iraqi stronghold.

Some are Mosul residents, displaced for the first time by the battle to drive the ultra-hardline group out of the largest city its has controlled in Iraq and Syria. Many others are from areas outside the city, brought to Mosul against their will, and now trying to get back to their towns and villages.

But the battle to recapture what remains of Islamic State's self-styled caliphate in Iraq has caused such destruction that for now the displaced head for increasingly crowded camps, and not home.

"We're on our way to Hammam al-Alil camp", at a town 20 km (13 miles) south of Mosul, 18-year-old Mohammed Mahmoud said, standing on the roadside near the mosque.

Mahmoud and about 30 other relatives, including small children and elderly men and women, had been taken by Islamic State from their village of Bakhira to Mosul, used as human shields as the militants withdrew last year, they said.

"Bakhira has been freed but we can't go back yet - the (army's) 9th Armoured Division are stationed there, and there's also the danger of booby traps" left by Islamic State, he said.

"Until it's been emptied and cleared, we can't go there."

Many Iraqis from areas around Mosul, such as Bashiqa town to the east, are unable to return because the militants rigged homes with explosives as they withdrew, which have already killed a number of people.

Others simply have no homes to go back to, with countless houses and businesses used by Islamic State as military positions destroyed in air strikes and artillery shelling.

During their time in Mosul, Mahmoud and his family had crammed into a relative's house until the district was recaptured from the militants, allowing the family to start the long journey back to their village, he said.

He said he would shave his wispy beard at the first opportunity. Under Islamic State rule, men are forced to sport beards of a certain length, on pain of fine or punishment.

The family was relieved to be free, but anxious about spending the foreseeable future in tents.

CROWDED CAMPS, NEW TENTS

The exodus has put strain on existing camps, as new ones are opened or built to cope with the influx.

An Iraqi aid worker who had helped set up the government-built Hammam al-Alil camp on Feb. 27, said that within 10 days, 26,000 people had flocked there.

"Supplies are short, and it's been constant work trying to register those coming in," Sajida al-Jabbouri said. "There are toilets, but there's no water".

The United Nations is building another camp outside the town. Labourers work every day setting out breeze blocks that will form the base of tents to house thousands of people.

International aid agencies say more than 200,000 Iraqis have been displaced by the fighting in Mosul, including more than 65,000 since Iraqi forces launched operations in the western half of the city last month.

The U.S.-backed campaign to drive Islamic State out of Mosul has recaptured the eastern half of the city, and around a third of the west. Displacement has quickened recently because the west is densely populated and contains the crowded old city.

Those fleeing the west often transit through the wrecked Mosul airport, whose runway is littered with the rubble of blast walls erected by Islamic State.

The small green mosque at the corner of the runway closest to the city is damaged from exploding shells, and Islamic State supporters have graffitied an Arabic slogan of the group: "The Islamic State remains and is expanding".

But as the caliphate shrinks, it is the number killed or displaced that grows.

(Reporting by John Davison; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Dominic Evans)

MOSUL, Iraq Iraqi government forces battling Islamic State for Mosul took control of a main bridge over the Tigris river on Wednesday and advanced towards the mosque where the group's leader declared a caliphate in 2014, federal police said.

WASHINGTON The top Republican and Democrat on the U.S. Senate Banking Committee both said on Wednesday that sanctions imposed on Russia over its involvement in Ukraine must not be lifted without drastic changes by Russia.

BRUSSELS/VIENNA Turkey has blocked some military training and other work with NATO "partner countries" in an apparent escalation of a diplomatic dispute with EU states, officials and sources said on Wednesday.

Read the original here:
At wrecked Mosul airport, home is still distant for Iraq's displaced - Reuters

Iraq pumped 4.57 million barrels a day of oil in February and plans to boost output later in the year even as the OPEC member reaffirmed its commitment to the groups decision to cut production to counter a global glut.

The countryplans to increase output to 5 million barrels a day by the end of 2017, Oil Minister Jabbar Al-Luaibi said Wednesday at a news conference in the southern city of Basra. Iraq exported 3.87 million barrels a day from its southern and northern shipment hubs in February, the ministrys spokesman, Asim Jihad, said in an emailed statement.

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Oil prices last week broke below $50 a barrel for the first time since December as rising U.S. shale oil supply muted the impact of reductions in output from members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and 11 other nations that started on Jan. 1. Saudi Arabia, the biggest producer in the group, raised production last month, though the kingdom kept output below its ceiling under the cuts agreement and said it moved extra supplies into storage.

The expected increase in shale oil poses a challenge to Iraq, Al-Luaibi said. The country is committed, however, to OPECs agreement to pare output to control global oversupply and support prices, the Oil Ministrys Jihad said in the statement.

The ministry is in talks with Exxon Mobil Corp. to develop the Ratawi and Omar oil fields, which together can produce half a million barrels a day,Hayyan Abdul-Ghani Abdul-Zahra, director general of state-run South Oil Co., told reporters in Basra. Iraq, OPECs second-largest producer, also plans to expand exports this year,Abdul-Zahra said.

Missan Oil, another producer in southern Iraq, wants to almost double output to 700,000 barrels a day by 2020 from its current level of 385,000, the companysDirector General Adnan Sajet told reporters in Basra. The Oil Ministry will invite bids to develop three fields in southeastern Maysan province --Dujail, Kumait and Rifaie -- in the second half of 2017, he said.

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Iraq Plans to Boost Crude Oil Production and Exports This Year - Bloomberg

MOSUL, Iraq Iraqi government forces battling Islamic State for Mosul took control of a main bridge over the Tigris river on Wednesday and advanced towards the mosque where the group's leader declared a caliphate in 2014, federal police said.

The seizure of the Iron Bridge, linking eastern Mosul with the militant-held Old City on the west side, means the government holds three of the five bridges over the Tigris and bolsters Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's assertion that the battle is reaching its final stages.

The bridge, which was damaged in fighting late last year, was captured by federal police and Interior Ministry Rapid Response units, a police statement said.

The gains were made in heavy fighting in which troops fought street-by-street against an enemy using suicide car bombs, mortar and sniper fire, and grenade-dropping drones to defend what was once their main stronghold.

"Our troops are making a steady advance ... and we are now less than 800 meters from the mosque," a federal police spokesman said.

Losing the city would be a huge blow to Islamic State as it has served as the group's de facto capital since its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed himself head of a caliphate spanning Iraq and Syria from the Nuri Mosque in July 2014.

The capture of the mosque would thus be a huge symbolic victory as well as a concrete gain. But many hard days of fighting could still lie ahead as government forces try to make headway in the streets and narrow alleyways of the Old City.

Islamic State fighters have booby-trapped houses, and government forces will also be fighting amongst civilians, ruling out the extensive use of air and artillery support.

Heavy fighting was also reported on Wednesday around the Mosul museum by journalists and combatants. An Islamic State suicide car bomb exploded near the museum. Helicopters strafed the ground with machinegun fire and missiles.

DECISIVE STAGE

The intense combat marked a decisive stage in the battle for Mosul which started on Oct. 17 last year, and in the wider struggle against Islamic State.

In neighboring Syria, three separate forces are advancing on the city of Raqqa, the main Syrian city under Islamic State control.

As well as waging jihad in Iraq and Syria, the militants have inspired attacks in cities in Europe, Africa and elsewhere that have killed hundreds of civilians.

In Baghdad, Abadi said: "Daesh (Islamic State) become day after day surrounded inside a tight area and they are in their final days."

In a news conference on Tuesday night, he warned the insurgents that they must surrender or face death.

"We will preserve families of Daesh who are civilians but we will punish the terrorists and bring them to justice if they surrender," he said. "They are cornered and if they will not surrender. They will definitely get killed."Iraqi officers said cloudy weather hampered air cover on Wednesday morning. Police commander Younes Jabouri said troops were moving forward but it was not easy because of the weather.

"We're on the edge of the Old City. There are lots of shops, garages and markets and a lot of residents and small streets and alleyways. It takes time because there are a lot of civilians and Daesh uses them as human shields, they don't let them leave," he said.

Residents have streamed out of western neighborhoods recaptured by the government, many desperately hungry and traumatized by living under Islamic State's harsh rule.

Haider Ibrahim Rohawi, a market trader, was fleeing Lagedat district with his family, pushing his possessions in a handcart.

"Yesterday afternoon the army came. Just a day before Daesh were in our houses with us. There was a lot of fighting. They shot one of the Daesh right in front of me. Everyone is threatened by Daesh, that's why we leave. The area is freed. We have no power, no fuel, nothing."

As many as 600,000 civilians are still trapped with the militants inside Mosul. The Ministry of Immigration and Displacement said on Tuesday that in recent days, almost 13,000 displaced people from western Mosul had been given assistance and temporary accommodation each day, adding to the 200,000 already displaced.

Staff Brigadier Falah al-Obeidi of the Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) told Reuters his troops on Wednesday took control over the Dor al-Sikak and al-Nafut areas, site of the militants' main weapons stores in Mosul just west of the Old City.

"Yesterday resistance was very strong in that area. It's where their stores are, and the people living there, both men and women, are with them (supporters or members)," he said.

Aerial surveillance photos showed women carrying guns, Obeidi said.

CTS troops also brought in a Russian-made missile and two warheads. They had found 40 more such missiles stored in homes in Dor al-Sikak.

(Additional reporting by Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad; Writing by Angus MacSwan in Erbil; Editing by Louise Ireland and Dominic Evans)

AMSTERDAM The Dutch voted on Wednesday in an election pitting mainstream parties against the hard-right anti-Islam Geert Wilders whose popularity is seen as a threat to politics-as-usual across Europe and an existential threat to the EU itself.

WASHINGTON The U.S. government on Wednesday unsealed charges against two Russian spies and two criminal hackers for allegedly pilfering 500 million Yahoo user accounts in 2014.

WASHINGTON The top Republican and Democrat on the U.S. Senate Banking Committee both said on Wednesday that sanctions imposed on Russia over its involvement in Ukraine must not be lifted without drastic changes by Russia.

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Iraqi troops seize main bridge, advance on mosque in battle for Mosul - Reuters

BAGHDAD Eight people were killed and more than 50 wounded when a car bomb exploded in a crowded street in the Iraqi city of Tikrit on Wednesday, a local official said.

The car was parked in al-Atibaa Street ("Doctors Street" in English) in downtown Tikrit, which is often crowded as it has many clinics.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing although Islamic State has carried out similar actions as it battles against a government offensive on its former stronghold in Mosul, 200 km (125 miles) north of Tikrit.

"Eight are killed and 52 are wounded from the Tikrit al-Atibaa street attack," governorate mediadirector Jamal Aqaab said.

More than 20 people were killed on March 8 in a series of blasts that hit a wedding near Tikrit and targeted security forces at the scene shortly afterwards.

The retreat of Islamic State's self-styled caliphate, which leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared from a mosque in Mosul's old city in 2014, has been accompanied by bomb attacks in areas outside the group's control, including Baghdad and cities in neighboring Syria.

(Reporting by Alaa Mohammad; Writing by Angus MacSwan; Editing by Tom Heneghan)

MOSUL, Iraq Iraqi government forces battling Islamic State for Mosul took control of a main bridge over the Tigris river on Wednesday and advanced towards the mosque where the group's leader declared a caliphate in 2014, federal police said.

WASHINGTON The top Republican and Democrat on the U.S. Senate Banking Committee both said on Wednesday that sanctions imposed on Russia over its involvement in Ukraine must not be lifted without drastic changes by Russia.

BRUSSELS/VIENNA Turkey has blocked some military training and other work with NATO "partner countries" in an apparent escalation of a diplomatic dispute with EU states, officials and sources said on Wednesday.

Read more:
Car bomb kills 8, wounds dozens in Iraq's Tikrit city - Reuters

Background

The Logistics Cluster has been active in Iraq since 2014 to support the humanitarian community in responding to the countrys growing needs. Logistics constraints, mainly caused by limited access, an unstable security situation and damaged/destroyed infrastructure in affected areas, remain a leading cause triggering the need for Cluster intervention. Since the operation to retake Mosul began in October 2016, the Logistics Cluster has significantly scaled up activities across the country, mainly in the Ninewa governorate. The Logistics Cluster has been conducting a range of activities aimed at addressing bottlenecks and gaps to enhance the response capacity of the humanitarian community through the provision of logistics services, coordination and information management.

Highlights

In February, the Logistics Cluster handled 10,440 m3, equivalent to 2,200 mt, of humanitarian relief items on behalf of 28 organisations.

Two initial Mobile Storage Units (MSUs) were erected in Hamam al Alil to be used as common storage (560 m2) to both support the surrounding Ministry of Displacement and Migration (MODM) camp and for the prepositioning of items for the response in southern and western Mosul. The scaling up of storage facilities will continue to match the growth of the camps in the area.

A warehouse in Gogjali (2,100 m2) was set for common storage and the Logistics Cluster worked with local authorities and a local NGO to secure the facility for the prepositioning of items for the response in eastern Mosul.

In response to an increase in storage requests, the Logistics Cluster secured another warehouse for common storage in Tikrit (1,000 m2), bringing the total available space to 3,400 m2.

The Logistics Cluster continued to support the extension of two emergency sites: Qayyarah Airstrip and Hajj Ali. In February, the Logistics Cluster facilitated the transport of a further 4,200 family tents, bringing the total to 8,200, enough to host over 49,000 people.

The Logistics Cluster continued to work closely with the One Stop Shop (OSS) for customs clearance for humanitarian cargo entering the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). In February, the OSS processed 49 requests, which included more the USD 62 million worth of humanitarian cargo.

-In addition, the OSS established direct liaison functions with the Kurdish Medical Control Agency (KMCA) in order to speed up the clearance process of medical items.

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Iraq Response Operational Overview, February 2017 - Reliefweb