Start of a phase of urban combat : ISIS ‘using civilians as human shields’ in Fallujah

ISIS forces are reported to be holding several hundred families as "human shields" in the Iraqi city of Fallujah while government forces close in, the United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday, citing witness accounts.

Some 3,700 people have fled Fallujah, west of Baghdad, over the past week since the Iraqi army began its offensive on the city controlled by militant forces, it said.

"UNHCR has received reports of casualties among civilians in the city center of Fallujah due to heavy shelling, including 7 members of one family on the 28th of May (Saturday)," UNHCR spokesman William Spindler told a news briefing.

"There are also reports of several hundred families being used as human shields by ISIL in the center of Falluja."

The accounts come from displaced people who have spoken to UNHCR field staff, spokeswoman Ariane Rummery said.

"Most people able to get out come from the outskirts of Fallujah. For some time militants have been controlling movements, we know civilians have been prevented from fleeing. There are also reports from people who left in recent days that they are being required to move with ISIL within Fallujah," she told Reuters, using another word for the militant group.

ISIS militants fought back vigorously overnight and parried an onslaught by the Iraqi army on a southern district of Fallujah, officers said.

• Iraqi authorities are holding some 500 men and boys under the age of 12 for "security screening" as they leave the city, a clearance process that can take up to seven days, Spindler said.

"But people are being released after this process and we understand that 27 men were released yesterday (Monday) after being screened," he said.

However, Al Arabiya News channel reported that the joint Special Operations Command in Iraq confirmed that the Federal Police and volunteers from tribes regained control from the ISIS-held area of Saqlawiyah northeast of Fallujah.

The Iraqi army stormed to the southern edge of Fallujah under US air support on Monday and captured a police station inside the city limits, which led to launch the assault to retake the ISIS stronghold.

With the continued fighting, security forces managed to evacuate 50 families in areas near the center of Fallujah. According to reports from the rescued families, a number of ISIS snipers on rooftops had prevented them from escaping.

A Reuters TV crew about 1.5 km from the city's edge said explosions and gunfire were ripping through Naimiya, a largely rural district of Fallujah on its southern outskirts.

An elite military unit, the Rapid Response Team, seized the district's police station at midday, state TV reported.

The unit advanced another mile northward, stopping about 500 meters (yards) from the al-Shuhada district, the southeastern part of city's main built-up area, army officers said......http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2016/05/31/Iraqi-army-storms-to-edge-of-ISIS-held-Fallujah.html
 31/5/16
--
-
Related:

• Start of a phase of urban combat : Iraqi forces enter ISIS bastion of Fallujah 

• Les forces Irakiennes sont entrées dans la ville de Falloujah, aux mains des jihadistes de l'EI...

• Fallujah, Iraq: 50,000 civilians are trapped inside the city. The jihadists trying to kill those who attempt to flee.

• Iraqi MP: Many civilians killed in Fallujah operation

• 50,000 Iraqi civilians ‘at great risk’ in Fallujah

• The Iraqi Prime Minister announced an operation to liberate Fallujah from ISIS

• Some 80,000 people newly displaced by conflict in Iraq since March