Alwaght- Iraqi special forces have continued operations to liberate key Fallujah city from ISIS terrorists who have now resorted to using several hundred families as “human shields”.
Witnesses have told the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) just one day after Iraqi troops forced their way into Fallujah city, desperate ISIS terrorists are hiding behind women and children who were unable to flee the city during the operation to recapture it.
"UNHCR has received reports of causalities among civilians in the city center of Fallujah due to heavy shelling, including 7 members of one family on the 28th of May," UNHCR spokesman William Spindler said during a Tuesday news briefing.
"There are also reports of several hundred families being used as human shields by ISIS in the center of Fallujah,” he added.
UNHCR spokeswoman Ariane Rummery noted that that the witness accounts came from displaced people who spoke to the refugee agency's field staff.
“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 ISIS within Fallujah," she said.
Iraqi troops forced their way into the city from three directions on Monday, capturing a police station.
Meanwhile, the commander of Fallujah Liberation Operations Lieutenant General Abdel wahab al-Saadi announced on Tuesday, that the security forces repelled an attack launched by ISIS on al-Nauimiya area, while pointed out to the killing of 75 ISIS members south of the city.
Fallujah, which saw some of the heaviest fighting of the US military invasion between 2003 and 2011, was the first city in Iraq to fall to ISIS.
The Takfiri extremists seized control of Fallujah in January 2014, six months before they swept across northern and western Iraq.
