Iraqi army plans to let ISIS fanatics escape out of Mosul along ‘killing zone’ road to Syria where they will be blitzed by coalition aircraft
But the innocent men, women and children who escape the slaughter will face more hardship outside the city
IRAQI forces are hoping to herd ISIS terrorists escaping Mosul into a 'killing zone' for warplanes.
As Iraqi and Kurd forces storm the terror group's last citadel in Iraq from the south, east and north, the western side of the city will be left open.
"We’ll try to give them an escape to run to Syria," Major Salam Jassim, a commander with Iraq’s elite special forces, told the .
Brigadier General Yahya Rasoul, a spokesman for the Iraqi military, added: "If we do that, then this area will become a killing zone as we target them with our aircraft."
It has also emerged that more a million desperate civilians are expected to flee the city of Mosul over the coming weeks as Iraqi forces close in on the ISIS stronghold.
Aid agencies have warned the battle to retake the city of 1.5million could unleash the "worst man-made humanitarian crisis"seen in modern times.
Families could face unimaginable horrors as ISIS dig in against 40,000 Iraqi troops and Kurd fighters storming the city, a desperate situation made worse by the coming brutal winter.
"In a worst-case scenario, we're literally looking at the single largest humanitarian operation in the world in 2016," said Lise Grande from the UN.
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"In Mosul, depending on what happens militarily, a million people could move in a time span of a couple of weeks."
At the Debaga Camp in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, Courtney Lare of the Norwegian Refugee Council spoke of her fears of a massacre when men, women and children try to escape the fighting.
"The humanitarian community is desperately trying to prepare, but this many people at once is extremely challenging," she said.
"Many may be caught in their homes others who will be fleeing will be subject to possible sniper fire, targeting by armed groups."
The Iraqi army and the Kurdish Peshmerga forces began moving in the direction of Mosul at dawn on Monday under air cover from the U.S.-led anti-Islamic State coalition.
A total of 20 villages were taken from the militants east, south and southeast of Mosul, according to statements from the army Iraqi army and the Kurdish Peshmerga forces.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced before dawn on Monday the start of the offensive on Mosul, two years after Iraq's second-largest city fell to the militants.
The fall of Mosul would effectively signal the defeat of the ultra-hardline Sunni group in Iraq. Islamic State also controls parts of Syria.
The Iraqi army is attacking Mosul on the southern and southeastern fronts, while the Peshmerga carried out their operation on the eastern front.
The Peshmerga, who are also deployed north and northeast of the city, said they secured "a significant stretch" of the 50 mile road between Erbil, their capital, and Mosul, about an hour drive to the west.
'EVERYTHING IS FINE, NO UPRISINGS HERE'
ISIS has crushed a rebellion against them in Mosul, according to Iraqi media, but the terror group claims everything is 'safe and normal'.
“Through their media arm in Mosul, IS (Islamic State) announced that they had crushed a rebellion against Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (the leader of ISIS) by the ‘Islamic police force’,” a local resident told Iraqi news site al-Sumaria.
The leader of the failed insurrection was named as Abu Othman, the chief of the terror group''s police force in the city.
Othman reportedly launhced attacks on four sites where IS leader al-Baghdadi was thought to be in hiding, a separate source told al-Sumaria.
“IS fighters killed the head of the police force along with some companions, and then carried out mass executions against dozens of members of the police force in areas where the clashes had happened,” the source said.
Meanwhile, ISIS released footage of people in Mosul and claim the city is "safe and life is normal".
Islamic State-linked news agency Amaq claims the footage, which shows people shopping and eating out, shows "interviews with civilians".
In the footage, a man says: "It is safe and life is normal. Satellite channels are lying. All their reports are lies."
Coalition warplanes, including RAF aircraft, attacked 17 Islamic State positions in support of the Peshmerga operation in the heavily mined area, the Kurdish statement said, adding that at least four car bombs were destroyed.
There was no indication about the number of military or civilian casualties in the Iraqi or Kurdish statements.
Mosul, with a current population of 1.5 million, is the largest city still under control of the militants, followed by Raqqa, in neighboring Syria. Islamic State declared a "caliphate" over parts of the two countries in 2014.
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