UN: Islamic state uses 400 Fallujah families as human shields

In the final government offensive for the city, thousands of civilians are held hostage by jihadists. They cannot leave the area and are used as shields. Jihadist spokesman: ready to fight "to the death", even that of civilians. Activist speaks of possible "humanitarian catastrophe."

 

Baghdad (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The United Nations has sounded the alarm about the fate of about 400 families in Fallujah, where the government has launched a "final offensive " to wrest the city from the militias of the Islamic State (IS).  The jihadists have controlled Fallujah since 2014, and are reported to be using civilians as human shields, for shelter from aerial and ground attacks of the Iraqi military and international coalition aircraft.

UN officials say they have received "credible information" that Daesh [Arabic acronym for IS] has gathered "families in the city center" informing them they "are not authorized" to abandon "these places of assembly".

All of this, experts warn, suggests that the militants "could use them as human shields". The families are in "great danger", concludes the UN source, "in the context of a military confrontation" on the ground.

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

Yesterday the government soldiers encountered strong resistance from the jihadists, who repeatedly halted their advance and launched counter-attack operations. The United Nations has appealed for caution to the Baghdad government, to "slow down" because the families they claim to protect are "trapped” by the operations.

In a message released in recent days IS spokesman Abu-Muhammad al-Adnani, said that the militiamen are ready to "fight to the death" in all strongholds, even if this means the death of civilians and innocent victims. A further confirmation that the jihadists have no qualms in using defenseless people as a defense and weapon of war.

Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, committed to the protection of displaced families from the town, warned about the danger of a "humanitarian catastrophe." Families, he adds, are "trapped in the crossfire" and have no "ways of salvation". The warring parties, he concluded, should "ensure a safe exit route, before it's too late."

Together with Mosul, the jihadist stronghold in Iraq, Fallujah is one of the most important cities to have been captured by IS in 2014, at the beginning of the jihadi 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 for Muslims.

• Iraq Islamic
• state Fallujah army offensive Islam fundamentalism