BAGHDAD — The Daesh (the so-called IS) group has been shooting at civilians as they try to flee the fighting between Iraqi government forces and Daesh militants in the city of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, an international aid organization says.
A number of those fleeing civilians have been killed as they tried to cross the Euphrates River, the Norwegian Refugee Council, said in a report late Sunday. The NRC, which works with refugees and internally displaced Iraqis, cited interviews with some of those who fled in its report late Sunday.
Iraqi forces, backed by US-led coalition airstrikes, have been fighting to retake the IS-held city of Fallujah since late May but the advance stalled last week because of heavy resistance the militants have put up and because an estimated 50,000 civilians remain trapped inside the city.
“Our biggest fears are now tragically confirmed with civilians being directly targeted while trying to flee to safety,” said Nasr Muflahi, the NRC Country Director in Iraq. “This is the worst that we feared would happen to innocent men, women and children who have had to leave everything behind in order to save their lives.”
The NRC put the total number of families who managed to flee from the outskirts of Fallujah in the early days of the Iraqi offensive, which started May 21, at 2,980. Only a couple more families have managed to escape from inside Fallujah since then, the NRC added.
Shiite militia leader
voices dismay
The leader of the largest Iraqi Shiite paramilitary group has criticized a lack of “precise planning” in war operations to capture Fallujah.
Hadi Al-Amiri's comments, in an interview with Al-Sumaria TV on Sunday, make him the second Shiite militia leader to voice dismay at efforts launched on May 23 by Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi to dislodge the militants from Fallujah.
“Unfortunately there is an absence of precise planning for the military operations,” said Amiri, the leader of the Badr Organization, the largest component of the Popular Mobilization, a coalition of Shiite militias that came together two years ago to fight Daesh with support from Iran.
On Friday, a spokesman for Asaib Ahl Al-Haq, Jawad Al-Talabawi, said the operations had come to a near standstill and asked Abadi to order the resumption of attacks.
Popular Mobilization has been fighting alongside the army in Fallujah. Army units are also receiving air support from the US- led coalition.
Abadi said on June 1 the army had slowed its offensive over fears for the safety of tens of thousands of civilians trapped in the city with limited access to water, food and healthcare.
But Amiri accused the authorities of moving military assets away from Fallujah, to the frontlines of Mosul, Daesh's de facto capital in northern Iraq.
Several calls to the Iraqi military spokesman since Sunday evening went unanswered. A government spokesman declined to comment. Under the Iraqi Constitution, Abadi is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
“I believe that sending a large part of armored vehicles and assets to Makhmour, under the pretext of Mosul's battle, is a betrayal to the battle of Fallujah,” Amiri said, referring to a region in northern Iraq. — Agencies
