Iraqis flee air raids as ISIS fight looms

City near Mosul is next up for offensive

In this 12 August, 2017, photo, civilian men from the Iraqi town of Tel Afar wait to undergo security screening at a collection point for displaced people west of Mosul. Hundreds of people a day are fleeing the town and the villages around it in anticipation of a government offensive against one of the last urban centers under Islamic State group control in northern Iraq. (AP Photo/Balint Szlanko)
In this 12 August, 2017, photo, civilian men from the Iraqi town of Tel Afar wait to undergo security screening at a collection point for displaced people west of Mosul. Hundreds of people a day are fleeing the town and the villages around it in anticipation of a government offensive against one of the last urban centers under Islamic State group control in northern Iraq. (AP Photo/Balint Szlanko)

BADOUSH, Iraq -- Thousands of Iraqis have fled an Islamic State-held town west of Mosul as Iraqi and coalition warplanes step up strikes ahead of a ground offensive to drive out the militants.

Tal Afar and the surrounding area is one of the last pockets of Islamic State-held territory in Iraq after the militants' defeat was declared in July in Mosul, the country's second-largest city. Tal Afar, about 93 miles east of the Syrian border, sits along a major road that was once a key Islamic State supply route.

On Monday, hundreds of exhausted civilians were transferred by Iraqi army trucks from the front line to a humanitarian collection point just west of Mosul. Many described a journey of a day or more from Tal Afar, with no food or water.

Jassem Aziz Tabo, an elderly man who arrived with his 12-member family, said he had left Tal Afar months ago and gone to a village on the outskirts to escape hunger, airstrikes and violence from the militants.

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"Those who tried to escape were captured and shot in the head. They killed my son," he said. "He tried to escape, he was caught and they killed him."

He said severe shortages have caused the price of food to skyrocket in Tal Afar, which has been besieged by Iraqi forces for months, with 2¼ pounds of sugar selling for $50.

"There was nothing. We were eating pieces of bread with water," he said.

Alia Imad, a mother of three whose family paid $300 to a smuggler to lead them to safety, said there is no drinking water left in the town.

"Most people drink water that's not clean. The majority are surviving on that and a bit of bread," she said.

The group she was with had come under fire during their escape from the militants, she said. A woman was killed, and they had to bury her by the road.

Lise Grande, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator, said conditions in Tal Afar are "very tough."

"Thousands of people are leaving, seeking safety and assistance. Families escaping northeast are trekking 10 and up to 20 hours to reach mustering points. They are exhausted and many are dehydrated when they finally arrive," she said.

Lt. Gen. Anwar Hama, of the Iraqi air force, said airstrikes this week have targeted Islamic State headquarters, tunnels and weapons.

But Iraqi forces, closely backed by the U.S.-led coalition, are not expected to push into the town for another few weeks, according to an Iraqi officer overseeing the operation. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Iraqi army, federal police and special forces units are expected to participate in the operation, as well as state-sanctioned, mostly Shiite militias known as the Popular Mobilization Units.

The militiamen largely stayed out of the operation to retake Mosul, a mostly Sunni city, but have vowed to play a bigger role in Tal Afar, which was mostly Shiite before it fell to the Islamic State, a Sunni extremist group. The militias captured Tal Afar's airport, on the outskirts of the town, last year.

Their participation in the coming offensive could heighten sectarian and regional tensions. Tal Afar was once home to Shiite and Sunni Arabs, as well as a sizable ethnic Turkmen community with close ties to neighboring Turkey. Turkish officials have expressed concern that once territory is liberated from the Islamic State, Iraqi Kurdish or Shiite forces may push out Sunni Arabs or ethnic Turkmen.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said his country would be watching the operation closely.

"Tal Afar is a town where almost the entire population is Turkmen. We have always considered it a priority for the region to be cleared from [the Islamic State] and for it to be returned to its owners," Bozdag said after a Cabinet meeting Tuesday.

"Turkey has always said that the region's demographic and religious makeup must be taken into consideration," Bozdag said. The state-backed militias "should not enter the region."

On Monday, the Iraqi army began moving an armored brigade to the front line south of Tal Afar, while an infantry division was deployed about 19 miles to the town's east.

Brig. Gen. Abdul Hussein a

Information for this article was contributed by Suzan Fraser of The Associated Press.

A Section on 08/16/2017

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