EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini stressed the action to take over, what is considered to be the capital of the Islamic State in Iraq, had the full support of the European union, while stressing the need to protect the civilian population of Mosul.
“We believe, again, that first of all the Iraqi authorities have our full support, also the Iraqi people, in this difficult time. And that we will need to work on prioritizing protection of civilian population of Mosul and also on the full respect of international humanitarian law,” said the EU representative.
The Iraqi government forces launched a US-backed offensive on Monday to drive the Islamic State from the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, a high-stakes battle to retake the last major stronghold of the extreme Muslim group in the country. Two years after the jihadists seized the city of 1.5 million people and declared a caliphate from there encompassing tracts of Iraq and Syria, force of some 30,000 Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga forces and Sunni tribal fighters began to advance. According to intelligence sources, some 8,000 Islamic State fighters are believed to be in Mosul. Nevertheless, Washington said the campaign to capture the city “has been months in the making,” to prepare for the battle of Mosul, “which is an important part in degrading and destroying the Islamic State.”
“It is now the last major center of ISIL in Iraq. The beginning of this campaign has been months in the making and there have been a number of important steps that Iraqi security forces have taken with the strong support of the United States and our coalition partners to prepare for this assault against Mosul. But this is obviously an important part of this broader effort to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL. It’s an indication that that effort is moving forward but there’s still a lot of important work to be done before that goal will be realized, even inside of Iraq,” said Josh Earnest, White House Spokesman.
According to the Pentagon the Iraqi forces were meeting their objectives and were ahead of the anticipated schedule on the first day of the offensive.
As in any conflict, the civilian population is expected to pay the dire cost of the fighting. The Director of Policy and Planning for the International Rescue Committee said the battle to retake Mosul would bring about an influx of refugees.
“We’re anticipating that most people will flee within Iraq itself and predominantly to the south and the southeast. Some may go up to the Kurdistan region of Iraq and very few may even cross into Syria. But this is predominately going to be an internal displacement crisis which is very familiar for the Iraqi people, over 3 million people are internally displaced right now. And in Iraq itself to date over 10 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance. So it’s really a humanitarian catastrophe on a humanitarian catastrophe,” Sarah Case, International Rescue Committee Director.
The United Nations has said the battle would require the world’s biggest and most complex humanitarian effort, which could leave up to 1 million people homeless and see civilians used as human shields.