美国有线新闻 CNN ISIS在摩苏尔布满炸弹 美军遇炸弹阵亡

 

First up, Iraqi troops and the international forces they're leading are closing in on the city of Mosul. It's in northern Iraq. It was taken over by the ISIS terrorist group in 2014. If and when ISIS is defeated in Mosul, it will be a major setback for the terrorists in their efforts to control the region. Hundreds of ISIS fighters have reportedly been killed so far.

There are reports that ISIS has been executing civilians as the battle gets closer. There have also been a number of casualties among the coalition troops fighting ISIS, including the U.S. servicemen whose vehicle hit an IED, an improvised explosive device, last week.

As ISIS has fled the towns around Mosul, it's left these bombs behind. And those who work to clear them out take tremendous risks.

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Peshmerga Captain Chilhan Sadk comes face to face with death every day, here showing us the fruits of his labor who says he's removed hundreds, perhaps thousands of IEDs like this.

"I do it for humanity," he tells us. "The people who plot these things are dangerous for my people, for the world. So, it's my decision to help save a life."

As Kurdish and Iraqi forces edge ever closer to Mosul, ISIS has been leaving behind the weapons to kill and maim even once they're gone.

Brigadier General Bajat Mzuri heads the elite Zaravani Special Forces. He says he loses more fighters to IEDs than on the battlefield. Thirty percent of those casualties, men working to diffuse and remove the explosives.

"We liberate a village and they are everywhere," he says. "People come back to their homes and open something up and it blows up."

The demining teams have rudimentary equipment and metal detector if they're lucky. The operator of this one lost his fingers to a booby trap.

Usually, the tools are wire cutters and their bare hands. Their faces inches from the explosives, not even body armor, let alone bomb disposal suits.

"We need training, but it is not enough," he tells us. "We need more equipment, new equipment to find the IEDs and destroy them."

It's the danger from booby traps that means that civilians can't go home to their villages yet, even now that ISIS is gone. All they can do is collect a few things and leave again.