'Sniper of Mosul' Shoots ISIS Jihadi to Save Iraqi Teen From Beheading
An Iraqi marksman known by the name "Sniper of Mosul" killed an Islamic State terrorist moments before the militant was going to publicly behead an Iraqi teenager, British news sites are reporting.
According to the Daily Star, the Arabic language media outlet Al Sumaria first reported that a man dubbed the Sniper of Mosul, who has reportedly been hunting IS jihadis in Iraq's largest stronghold, helped save the life of an Iraqi teenager accused of supporting the coalition offensive to push IS out of the city.
As jihadis and IS supporters gathered to watch the aforementioned teen's execution for supporting the Iraqi-led coalition forces, the mysterious sniper opened fire at the right time, reportedly killing the executioner just as he was taking aim to ruthlessly decapitate his victim.
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After realizing what had transpired, fellow IS militants opened fire in response.
This news comes after Al Sumaria reported last week that the Sniper of Mosul was active in four of the city's neighborhoods, which might indicate that there is actually more than one sniper.
"The emergence of the Sniper of Mosul, as the residents call him, increased the pace of the popular resistance against ISIS," the Al Sumaria article states, according to Iraqi News. "The presence of the sniper in four neighborhoods emphasizes that there are many snipers and not only one."
In addition to the independent snipers, other forms of uprising from Mosul residents have taken place.
According to Iraqi News, rebellious youths with previous military experience have been forming combat units to fight IS. Additionally, it reports that they recently carried out an attack on IS' headquarters.
It was also reported that an anonymous veiled woman took it upon herself to kill the jihadis. According to Iraqi News, the veiled woman killed at least two jihadis in Mosul in late September, which marked the third time within a month that such an incident occurred.
As the Iraqi-led coalition forces continue to close in on Mosul and have liberated a number of villages outside of the city in the Nineveh Plains, the Kurdish news site Rudaw reports that IS is using citizens as human shields, sending foreign fighters into the city as reinforcements, using various tactics to intimidate the remaining citizens and is preventing them from leaving the city.
A blogger and historian who runs the online blog Mosul Eye, told Rudaw that the militants have set up checkpoints throughout the city and closed off streets to make it more difficult for citizens to flee the city.
"If the people will try to leave, there will be no chance for them," the blogger said.
As coalition forces are encroaching from the East, North and South, the terrorists are shifting to old neighborhoods on the western side of the city.
Additionally, Rudaw reports that as many as 2,000 prisoners remain in the city and IS has begun executing many of them.
On Tuesday, IS beheaded 23 prisoners near the Ibn Sina Hospital in Mosul. In just a three-day timespan, the militant group reportedly executed more than 50 prisoners.
