BAGHDAD (Sputnik) — On October 17, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi announced the start of a military operation to retake Mosul from Daesh, a jihadist group outlawed in Russia and a number of other states.
According to local media, about 30,000 Iraqi soldiers and 4,000 Kurdish Peshmerga fighters are taking part in the operation, backed by airstrikes carried out by the US-led international coalition.
"IS [Daesh] militants continued to commit atrocities in the province of Nineveh, they executed 190 people in the area of Hammam al-Alil after taking them hostage in different areas of Mosul," Abdel Rakhim Shamri said as quoted by his press service.
According to the lawmaker, another 42 people in the nearby village of Arij became victims of the terrorist group because of their refusal to cooperate with the militants.
