The Hamam al-Alil massacre ( ar, مجزرة حمام العليل) was the killing of at least 300 civilians in the town of
Hamam al-Alil
Hamam al-Alil (''also: Hammam al-Alil''; Arabic: حمام العليل "fresh bath") is a town south of Mosul about 27 KM in the Nineveh Governorate in Iraq, on the western bank of the Tigris River. It is referred to as the largest town south of t ...
in Iraq's
Nineveh Governorate
Nineveh Governorate ( ar, محافظة نينوى, syr, ܗܘܦܪܟܝܐ ܕܢܝܢܘܐ, Hoparkiya d’Ninwe, ckb, پارێزگای نەینەوا, Parêzgeha Neynewa), also known as Ninawa Governorate, is a governorate in northern Iraq. It has an ...
by the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...
(ISIL) in late October and early November 2016. The event took place within a larger ongoing assault on the city of Mosul by a wide coalition of anti-ISIL forces, which managed to capture Hamam al-Alil on 7 November.
Background
The Battle of Mosul began on 16 October 2016 with forces besieging ISIL-controlled areas in the
Nineveh Governorate
Nineveh Governorate ( ar, محافظة نينوى, syr, ܗܘܦܪܟܝܐ ܕܢܝܢܘܐ, Hoparkiya d’Ninwe, ckb, پارێزگای نەینەوا, Parêzgeha Neynewa), also known as Ninawa Governorate, is a governorate in northern Iraq. It has an ...
surrounding Mosul.
Massacre and recapture of town
By October 29, the town of Hamam al-Alil was "almost 90% surrounded" as Iraqi security forces and federal police continued their push northward to Mosul. News reports suggested at least 42 civilians were killed by ISIS in the town the day before, and numerous more taken north to serve as human shields in the upcoming offensive.
On November 4, the
UN High Commissioner for Refugees
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integratio ...
announced that ISIS was instructing residents of the town to hand over boys aged 9 and older, apparently to fight for the group. Around 150 families from Hamam al-Alil were reportedly moved to Mosul itself. The Commissioner's office estimated that as many as 1,600 civilians may have been forcibly moved from Hamam al-Alil to
Tal Afar
Tal Afar ( ar, تَلْعَفَر, Talʿafar, ) is a city in the Nineveh Governorate of northwestern Iraq, located 63 km (39 mi) west of Mosul, 52 km (32 mi) east of Sinjar
By the next day the town was under direct attack from Iraqi forces, with militants using previously planted landmines and bombs to stop their advance. Military reinforcements were sent to the area to help counter the attacks, including aerial support by Iraqi planes and attack helicopters. On November 6, the government offensive succeeded in breaching through to the city center, as the Iraqi forces estimated at least 70 IS fighters, mostly foreign, were left to defend the town. Some militants attempted to escape across the river, while Iraqi troops and police managed to prevent three attempted suicide car bombings.
Shortly after Hamam al-Alil was declared fully liberated on November 7, Iraq's military announced it had discovered around 100 beheaded bodies in the College of Agriculture and Forestry (part of the
University of Mosul
The University of Mosul is a public university located in Mosul. It is one of the largest educational and research centers in the Middle East, and the second largest in Iraq, behind the University of Baghdad.
The University of Mosul was closed b ...
), on the southern outskirts of town. It was not immediately known if those included the 42 reported killed previously, or if they constituted a separate mass killing.
Aftermath
After government forces pushed out ISIS on 7 November, locals expressed their joy that the group's reign of terror had been brought to an end, with many re-opening their shops or taking the opportunity to bathe in the town's
sulfur
Sulfur (or sulphur in British English) is a chemical element with the symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with a chemical formula ...
springs. Officials with the federal police said they will focus on clearing operations around Hamam al-Alil before proceeding north toward Mosul.
See also
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Camp Speicher massacre
The Camp Speicher massacre occurred on 12 June 2014, when the Islamic State killed between 1,095 to 1,700 Iraqi cadets in an attack on Camp Speicher in Tikrit, Iraq. At the time of the massacre, there were between 5,000 and 100,000 unarmed cadet ...
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Sinjar massacre
The Sinjar massacre () marked the beginning of the genocide of Yazidis by ISIL, the killing and abduction of thousands of Yazidi men, women and children. It took place in August 2014 in Sinjar city and Sinjar District in Iraq's Nineveh Governora ...
Genocide of Yazidis by ISIL
A genocide of Yazidis by the Islamic State was carried out in the Sinjar area of northern Iraq in the mid-2010s. The genocide led to the expulsion, flight and effective exile of the Yazidis. Thousands of Yazidi women and girls were forced i ...
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List of terrorist incidents, 2016
This is a list of terrorist incidents which took place in 2016, including attacks by violent non-state actors for political motives. Note that terrorism related to drug wars and cartel violence is not included in these lists. Ongoing military con ...