Islamic State kidnaps 25 civilians attempting to flee its Kirkuk stronghold

Kirkuk (IraqiNews.com) Islamic State militants have kidnapped 25 civilians for attempting to flee the group’s strongholds in southwestern Kirkuk, a source said Thursday as refugees numbers continue to soar amid battles between the group and Iraqi troops.

Alsumaria News quoted a source within pro-government militias at the town of Hawija as saying that the extremist group kidnapped early in the morning 25 people from al-Zab region after setting them up in an ambush.

The civilians, who were bound to Shirqat town in the neighboring Salahuddin province, were accused of “abandoning the land of the caliphate,” a charge the group recurrently filed against civilians fleeing areas under its control. The accusation, most of the time, has ended up with the civilians brutally executed.

On Wednesday, the Iraqi migration ministry said refugees leaving Hawija and neighboring Mosul, where the government is carrying a massive campaign to expel IS, reached 251.000 since October. The government has also said that more than four million are internally displaced since Islamic State emerged in Iraq in 2014.

The government is expected to wage further campaigns to drive out IS militants at smaller pockets in Kirkuk and Anbar after it finishes with Mosul, the group’s largest bastion in Iraq.