23 June 2016•Update: 24 June 2016
By Hamit Huseyin
ERBIL, Iraq
Any attempt to recapture the northern city of Mosul - Iraq's second-largest city - from the Daesh terrorist group could lead to the displacement of some half million civilian residents of the area, an Iraqi official warned Wednesday.
"We are prepared for massive internal displacement - but not that much," Bashar Kiki, head of Mosul’s provincial council, told Anadolu Agency.
"Iraq’s central government must allocate the necessary funds for this," he said.
"Any campaign to dislodge Daesh from Mosul can’t be of a purely military aspect," he added. "It must also involve an alliance between local religious and ethnic groups."
In the absence of such an alliance, he said, "any attempt to recapture the city will run into delays and potential errors".
Kiki went on to voice concern about the participation of the Hashd al-Shaabi - an umbrella group of Shia militias - in any such operation.
"We don’t accept the Hashd al-Shaabi’s participation [in future efforts to retake Mosul]," he said. "This isn’t because we’re anti-Shia but because we must consider Mosul’s sectarian sensitivities."
Iraq has suffered a devastating security vacuum since mid-2014, when Daesh overran Mosul and large swathes of territory in the northern and western parts of the country.
According to the UN, more than 3.4 million people are now displaced in Iraq - more than half of them children - while more than 10 million are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.
*Anadolu Agency correspondent Ahmet Sait Akcay contributed to this report from Ankara
