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Terrified Mosul residents forced to strip at gunpoint to prove they aren't carrying explosives as they flee fighting

206,000 people have fled the fighting between US-backed Iraqi forces and ISIS militants since the start of the offensive in October – and as many as 15,000 children in the last few days alone







Terror etched on his face, this desperate civilian is made to strip by a nervous soldier to prove he is not a terrorist suicide bomber.

He is just one of thousands fleeing ISIS in Mosul , northern Iraq – many carrying children and screaming for mercy as special forces troops advance.


The Iraqi soldiers, who have lost hundreds of comrades to suicide bombers, order the adults to strip to show they aren’t bearing explosives.

These were the heartbreaking and humiliating scenes over the weekend as the troops smashed their way into ISIS’s last remaining Iraqi stronghold.

Figures released yesterday show 206,000 people have fled the fighting between US-backed Iraqi forces and ISIS militants since the start of the offensive in October – 40,000 in the past week.
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CLICK TO PLAYHUNDREDS OF IRAQIS STRUGGLE IN MUDDY ROADS TO FLEE MOSUL AS BATTLES RAGE





An Iraqi family walks from Islamic State controlled part of Mosul towards Iraqi special forces soldiers(Photo: REUTERS)

A man cries while carrying his daughter as he walks (Photo: REUTERS)

A woman cries after crossing from Islamic State controlled part of Mosul to Iraqi forces controlled area(Photo: REUTERS)

Yesterday, the Iraqi troops launched a new attack on the ISIS-held old-city centre. Their advance had been held up over previous days due to bad weather.

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ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is nowhere to be seen. Military sources have told the Mirror they suspect the cowardly warlord is now holed up again in ISIS’s stronghold of Raqqa, in Syria .

Britain’s SAS and the US Delta Force are trying to pinpoint the Iraqi-born mastermind’s bolthole so they can kill him. Spy drones fitted with powerful cameras are flying over Raqqa searching for any sign of al-Baghdadi, who is believed to be cowering underground.

Communications “chatter” is caught by US and UK teams in spy planes using a voice recognition computer to “cleanse” the data and identify speakers.

A civilian dodges sniper fire (Photo: REUTERS)

And locals recruited and trained by French, US CIA and British MI6 officers have slipped back into Raqqa to try to locate the key leaders.

More than 500 US-led special forces are attacking Islamic State positions on the outskirts of Raqqa – as ISIS’s remaining Iraqi base of West Mosul comes under heavy attack and is beginning to fall. The terror group has dropped bombs from drones down on to civilians in the city and is suspected of launching chemical weapons.

The area has been destroyed by heavy fighting (Photo: REUTERS)

As many as 15,000 desperate children have fled Mosul in the past few days.

One Iraqi source said: “It has been raining bombs. Islamic State are dropping them accurately from remote-controlled drones targeting troops and civilians. It is terrifying and it makes progress slow as we don’t know where they will next drop the bombs.”

Once Mosul falls in the coming weeks, it means al-Baghdadi’s claimed caliphate will no long exist as intended as the Iraqi part will not be under ISIS control.

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