Over 103,000 Iraqis displaced since Mosul operation began: Minister

Jassim al-Jaff announced in a statement that more than 103,000 civilians had experienced forced displacement in the face of the military campaign, noting that nearly 2,470 more civilians fled violence in northern Iraq on Monday alone.
 
“This takes the total number of displaced people to 103,362 since the operation began,” he said.
 
Meanwhile, Abu Bakr al-Kanaan, the head of an Iraqi government commission tasked with repatriating displaced people, said some 15,000 people have already returned to their homes in liberated areas south of Mosul.
 
“And another 10,000 will return to their homes in the area soon,” Kanaan pointed out.
 
Daesh prisons uncovered   
 
On Monday, Iraqi counter-terrorism forces uncovered a prison of Daesh in Qadisiyah neighborhood eastern Mosul.
 
A security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Arabic-language al-Baghdadia television network that government forces found many individual cells and torture chambers in addition to classified documents and a list of the names of the detainees at the site.
 
Later in the day, counter-terrorism forces discovered another Daesh prison in Mosul’s eastern neighborhood of al-Zohour.
 
An unnamed official said there weren’t any detainees at the site then, yet there were many individual cells plus a very large hall for holding captives, and rooms with electric torture devices.
 
The official added that counter-terrorism forces also found lists of the names of detainees and the wanted inside the prison.
 
Iraqi forces recapture more areas
 
Moreover, pro-government fighters from Popular Mobilization Units, better known by the Arabic name Hashd al-Sha’abi, established control over Tal al-Aska’ district northwest of Tal Abtah region.
 
The volunteer forces had earlier liberated the village of Abu Sanam northwest of Mosul, following fierce skirmishes with Daesh terrorists. Tens of Takfiri terrorists were killed during the heavy exchange of gunfire.
 
Additionally, Hashd al-Sha’abi bomb disposal teams are engaged in clearing Aziz Agha village northwest of Tal Abtah region from roadside bombs, booby-trapped buildings and unexploded ordnance.
 
Popular Mobilization Units fighters also confiscated a considerable amount of munitions from a Daesh arms depot in al-Showairah village northwest of Tal Abtah after they managed to free the area from the terrorists’ grip.
 
On Monday morning, Iraqi pro-government forces managed to retake Um al-Shababit village on the road linking the Kurdish-majority Sinjar region to the city of Tal Afar, located 63 kilometers west of Mosul.
 
On October 17, Iraqi army soldiers, pro-government Hashd al-Sha'abi fighters and Kurdish Peshmerga forces launched a joint operation to retake Mosul from Daesh terrorists.
 
The Iraqi forces’ advance has, however, been slowed down due to the presence of hundreds of thousands of civilians, many of whom are prevented from leaving Mosul by Daesh.