Islamic State snipers target civilians fleeing Fallujah

Local witnesses speak of people "shot dead" by militiamen while "trying to cross the river." In recent weeks three thousand people have found shelter in a refugee camp on the outskirts of town. The government army continues its offensive. The militiamen hold the west bank of the Euphrates

Baghdad (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Civilians fleeing from Fallujah, a the Islamic State stronghold in Iraq (IS) currently under a government army siege, are being taken out by militia snipers as they attempt to escape the fighting.

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has interviewed several families who fled the city, who speak of "civilians being shot dead" by jihadists, while "trying to cross the Euphrates".

According to NRC experts who run a refugee camp on the outskirts of Fallujah there are still tens of thousands of people being held hostage by Daesh [Arabic acronym for IS]. In the last three weeks at least 3 thousand people have reached the camp.

On 30 May the army offensive to regain Iraqi Fallujah began.  The city in the Anbar governorate is about 50 km west of the capital and has been under IS control for two. There are at least 50 thousand civilians trapped inside the city; so far only a few hundred families (around 5 thousand people) have managed to escape to safety.

Shakir al-Essawi, head of the Fallujah regional council, said civilians are trying to cross the river inside of refrigerators, cupboards and barrels, to escape the jihadist militants snipers. Our "worst nightmare," adds Nasr Muflahi, NRC director in Iraq, has been "confirmed." "Men, women and children are being targeted," he adds, that "people who had to leave everything behind in an attempt to save his life ".

Meanwhile, on the front line of fighting the Iraqi army has surrounded the city; only the western bank of the Euphrates River is not yet under direct military control of Baghdad. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said that the offensive has slowed to allow civilians to leave the area of ​​the fighting.

In recent days in Saqlawiyah, a town north of Fallijah, a mass grave was discovered containing the bodies of 400 people: They were government soldiers killed by jihadists between 2014 and 2015.

Together with Mosul, the other jihadist stronghold in Iraq, Fallujah is one of the most important cities to have ended up under IS control in 2014, at the beginning of the jihadist offensive. Before the rise of Daesh 300 thousand people lived in the city and, in the past, it was one of the "symbols" of Sunni "resistance" against the invasion of the US military following the fall of Saddam Hussein. Furthermore, it is known as the "city of mosques" for the more than 200 places of worship.

• Iraq Islamic
• state Fallujah army offensive Islam fundamentalism