Islamic State deliberately targeting citizens fleeing Mosul
Families fleeing from the IS-held areas.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Islamic State militants are deliberately targeting civilians escaping the field of battles between the extremist group and Iraqi forces in the city of Mosul, Human Rights Watch said late Tuesday.
IS “have indiscriminately attacked civilian areas in eastern Mosul with mortar rounds and explosives, and deliberately shot at fleeing residents,” said the US-based organization, which has recurrently criticized various parties engaged in the fight against IS in Iraq.
It quoted residents of Iraq’s second largest city as saying that they are being targeted as a punishment for their reluctance to retreat with militants to the western section of the city, where IS still maintains strategic strongholds near borders with Syria. They told HRW they refused to leave with the group for fear of being used as human shields. “ Residents said ISIS members told them in person, by radio, and over mosque loudspeakers that those who stayed behind were ‘unbelievers’ and therefore valid targets along with the Iraqi and coalition forces.”
“If ISIS really cared about the people trapped in its so-called caliphate it would let them flee to safety,” said Lama Fakih, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Instead, it is indiscriminately or deliberately killing and wounding people for refusing to be human shields.”
The accounts were taken from 50 Iraqis who sought refuge at Kurdistan region after fleeing eastern Mosul. They were telling of incidents which occurred from the third week of November until the first week of December.
The organization gave Iraqi government forces and allied US-led forces their share of responsibility for civilians deaths. “Iraqi and coalition forces have also killed and wounded civilians by striking or deploying from homes.” the report read. “Five witnesses described what they said were three separate Iraqi or coalition airstrikes that targeted ISIS fighters similarly positioned on residential rooftops or in alleys between homes, but that also killed civilians”.