ISIS cowards burn oil wells to hamper airstrikes and use terrified civilians as human shields in desperate last stand in Mosul
DEPRAVED ISIS fighters are burning barrels of oil across Mosul in a bid to obscure the visibility of war planes as they prepare for a bloody showdown with Iraqi forces.
In images mirroring those of Saddam Hussein's Gulf War, plumes of black smoke are seen billowing into the sky while refugees flee in droves.
It comes as a Sun man today revealed the horrors of war after stumbling across Kurdish fighters burying dead ISIS jihadis after a firefight just last night.
The ISIS fighters that remain in the city are preparing for the vicious battle by planting bombs, preparing tunnels and blocking roads.
Among them are some of the group's most battle-hardened jihadis who, according to residents' accounts, have become increasingly paranoid in recent weeks.
Anyone suspected of communicating with the outside world is executed, they say.
Although the battle is expected to generate hundreds of thousands of refugees, the US has also said the group is trapping residents inside the city to use human shields.
Authorities are bracing for a massive flow of civilians fleeing the northern Iraq city as the fight to seize the last remaining ISIS stronghold in the country progresses.
The battle, which began Monday, has so far focused on the villages surrounding the city, most of which are traditionally Kurdish.
Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis said ISIS had for weeks kept Mosul's estimated population of 1.5 million from escaping, with the start of the offensive offering them no respite.
"We know they are being used as human shields, absolutely," Davis said.
"They are being held there against their will. We have not seen any change in the last day of people leaving or fleeing."
The fighting so far has been fairly light, mainly focused on villages east of Mosul that Kurdish peshmerga fighters are reclaiming from ISIS.
Davis said jihadists were deploying suicide-car attackers and had been attempting to thwart air raids and intelligence drones by igniting giant pits of oil and tires to create thick smoke to hide their movements and positions.
"We've seen very good progress," he said. "It's going to be a while. There's a lot of movement they have to do to get in (to Mosul) but it's very much under way."
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the smoke clouds hadn't had any tactical effect.
Estimates vary for the number of ISIS fighters inside Mosul, where they have had two years to dig in, build tunnels and booby trap countless roads and buildings.
It is also claimed leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is among those hiding in the massive city.
Davis said a high-end maximum number of jihadists in the city and surrounding areas was a little more than 5,000.
Officials fear the jihadists may attempt to use rudimentary chemical agents, as they have previously, particularly in the battle's later stages.
Military planners also acknowledge it may take weeks for Iraqi security forces to arrive in Mosul proper, as the roads into the city are expected to be very heavily mined.
Approximately 10,000 Kurds are moving in on the city, with another 20,000 Iraqi security forces and police following behind.
A local merchant inside the city of Mosul said the situation was "terrifying".
He said he has stocked food, water and cooking gas for 40 days and bought an oven to bake bread.
Residents say ISIS militants patrol Mosul's streets on bicycles or motorbikes to make for smaller targets from the air.
On Sunday evening, a resident said the fighters shot a man twice in the head in front of his family and neighbors. His crime: possession of a SIM card for a cellphone.
A few days earlier, five men accused of spying were killed by a firing squad in a public square.
Mosul is completely dark at night because IS forbids the use of any generators, fearing the lights could draw airstrikes.
"Every minute passes like a year," said a father of three.
FEARS OF ISIS MUSTARD GAS ATTACKS
US forces expect ISIS to use crude WW1-era chemical weapons such as mustard gas in the vicious fight for Mosul.
Although its ability to create such weapons are limited, they have previously used sulphur mustard agents on local populations.
The horrific weapon - outlawed under international law - causes severe chemical burns, blistering to lungs and skin and blindness.
A US official told Reuters: "Given ISIL's reprehensible behaviour and flagrant disregard for international standards and norms, this event is not surprising.
However, U.S. officials do not believe ISIS has been successful so far at developing chemical weapons with particularly lethal effects, meaning that conventional weapons are still the most dangerous threat for advancing Iraqi and Kurdish forces - and any foreign advisers who get close enough.
The Corridor of Death
It emerged yesterday 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 .
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.
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