As a US-backed offensive pushes into the western neighborhoods of Mosul, more than 2,000 people left the Iraqi city over the weekend. But with hundreds of thousands of civilians caught in the fighting, camps near the city cannot house all the displaced.
In what is believed to be the biggest exodus since local forces stepped up their operations to retake the western part of the city from Islamic State terrorist group (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) a week ago, the UN is now working to expand its camps near the city.
Up to 400,000 civilians could be displaced by the fighting in west Mosul, according to humanitarian organizations’ estimates. While people continue to flee to safer areas from the western districts of Mosul, the existing camps near the city currently cannot house all the people expected to be displaced.
“We believe there are around 750,000 people, with more than 300,000 children [among them] inside west Mosul, and we believe half of that number of people would flee,” UNICEF regional emergency coordinator in Iraq, Bastien Vigneau told RT.
Based on these estimation figures, the UN is working to provide additional shelter and assistance inside camps, the UN official added, saying the organization is gravely concerned about the humanitarian situation affecting residents of west Mosul.
“There is no water, no food, no bread. Nothing,” a displaced man from Mosul told RT. Another one said: “We left our house, our cars, everything we owned, we took nothing but our clothes. We are scared, tired and hungry. My situation speaks for itself.”
“There are hundreds of thousands of civilians still inside west Mosul, still living under ISIS. These are people who have extremely limited access to food, clean drinking water, medication. And as the fighting rages, we simply have no idea how long these people are going to remain without access to all of those things,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) Senior Iraq Researcher, Belkis Wille confirmed to RT.
We reported that ISIS promised to slaughter all the Christians of Egypt and encouraged fellow Muslims to do the same. True to their word, ISIS has been attacking Christians at random and butchering them in broad daylight. The violence has become so bad that hundreds of Christians are reported to be fleeing their homes trying to get away from ISIS before they become the next victims:
Hundreds of Coptic Christians are arriving in Ismailia, northern Egypt, having fled their homes after ISIS killings increased.
Following a video call for a surge in attacks on Christians, militants killed several Copts with one beheaded and another set on fire. As many as 29 have been killed in recent weeks.
One priest in the terror-struck town of Al-Arish, northern Sinai, said 550 had fled. Other estimates put the total at 250.
Evangelical churches in Ismailia are joining Coptic churches to provide shelter for the refugees.
Evangelical pastor Ezzat Afifi said: ‘They are in a state of fear and shock. Each and every one of them received direct death threats. I hope that this is only temporary. I hope they return to their homes, their schools and friends.’
He added: ‘Many families lost their loved ones, cousins, relatives and friends by killing.’
One refugee, Morcos Bahgat, whose father was killed in a shooting, said: ‘Two masked men attacked my father in his clinic at 2pm. They took him out to the street and made him kneel.
‘They threatened to kill him if he doesn’t confess to Islam. When he refused to do that, they shot him immediately. The police didn’t come and no one did anything, everyone stood there watching.’
Six Russian diplomats have died in the last 60 days. As Axios notes, all but one died on foreign soil. Some were shot, while other causes of death are unknown. Note that a few deaths have been labeled "heart attacks" or "brief illnesses."
1. You probably remember Russia's Ambassador to Turkey, Andrei Karlov — he was assassinated by a police officer at a photo exhibit in Ankara on December 19.
2. On the same day, another diplomat, Peter Polshikov, was shot dead in his Moscow apartment. The gun was found under the bathroom sink but the circumstances of the death were under investigation. Polshikov served as a senior figure in the Latin American department of the Foreign Ministry.
3. Russia's Ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, died in New York this past week. Churkin was rushed to the hospital from his office at Russia's UN mission. Initial reports said he suffered a heart attack, and the medical examiner is investigating the death, according to CBS.
4. Russia's Ambassador to India, Alexander Kadakin, died after a "brief illness January 27, which The Hindu said he had been suffering from for a few weeks.
5. Russian Consul in Athens, Greece, Andrei Malanin, was found dead in his apartment January 9. A Greek police official said there was "no evidence of a break-in." But Malanin lived on a heavily guarded street. The cause of death needed further investigation, per an AFP report. Malanin served during a time of easing relations between Greece and Russia when Greece was increasingly critiqued by the EU and NATO.
6. Ex-KGB chief Oleg Erovinkin, who was suspected of helping draft the Trump dossier, was found dead in the back of his car December 26, according to The Telegraph. Erovinkin also was an aide to former deputy prime minister Igor Sechin, who now heads up state-owned Rosneft.
Six Russian diplomats have died in the last 60 days. As Axios notes, all but one died on foreign soil. Some were shot, while other causes of death are unknown. Note that a few deaths have been labeled "heart attacks" or "brief illnesses."
7. On the morning of U.S. Election Day, Russian diplomat Sergei Krivov was found unconscious at the Russian Consulate in New York and died on the scene. Initial reports said Krivov fell from the roof and had blunt force injuries, but Russian officials said he died from a heart attack. BuzzFeed reports Krivov may have been a Consular Duty Commander, which would have put him in charge of preventing sabotage or espionage.
8. In November 2015, a senior adviser to Putin, Mikhail Lesin, who was also the founder of the media company RT, was found dead in a Washington hotel room according to the NYT. The Russian media said it was a "heart attack," but the medical examiner said it was "blunt force injuries."
9. If you go back a few months prior in September 2016, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s driver was killed too in a freak car accident while driving the Russian President’s official black BMW to add to the insanity.
If you include these three additional deaths that’s a total of nine Russian officials that have died over the past 2 years that WeAreChange.com's Aaron Kesel knows of - he notes there could be more.
It seems highly unlikely and improbable to write off that six Russian officials would die in under 60 days in such an influx in various different mysterious ways without a catalyst. And let’s not forget RT founder and former Putin aide Mikhail Lesin was found dead in 2015 from a blunt weapon that was originally blamed on a heart attack so assassination can’t be taken off the table and ruled out in any of these cases. Turkey and Russia already accused NATO of a false flag attack killing Karlov the Russian-Turkish Ambassador. NATO also had a dead diplomat Yves Chandelon mysteriously die of a gunshot wound to the head in his car a week before the death of Karlov. Chandelon was the Chief Auditor in charge Of Counterterrorism funding.
“Turkey and Russia have the will not to be deceived by this false flag attack,” they said.
Don’t forget that on Christmas day, a Russian military jet went down over the Black Sea, killing 60 members of the Red Army choir and 33 others that just adds to the massive coincidence list.
On a final note, former acting director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Michael Morell openly conspired to “covertly” kill Russians and Iranians in Syria in an August 2016 interview with Charlie Rose. While Morell was talking about killing Russian and Iranian soldiers it is definitely a strange piece to add to this puzzle.
Scott have you heard anything about Putin wanting to step down in the next few months??? Not sure if it's true....but what a monkey wrench that could turn out to be...
ReplyDeleteNo, I haven't heard that one, but I'll be on the look-out for anything like that
ReplyDeleteIt is somewhat a miracle that Russia has been holding back it's fury, despite all the spheres being thrown at the bear.
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