(UNHCR) – Abdelwahed Mahmoud first learnt of the impending military offensive on Mosul three weeks ago, when leaflets dropped from planes began raining down on his village, Gelyuhan, a few kilometres south of Iraq’s second city. The leaflets said the Iraqi Security Forces were coming to re-take the area from militants who had controlled it for more than two years. They told civilians to avoid known militant positions, and how best to evacuate their homes when the security forces reached them.
