UN says IS targets children to hold Mosul civilians hostage
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BAGHDAD — Fighters for the Islamic State group are targeting children in Mosul to prevent civilians from fleeing the city as Iraqi forces push into the last stronghold held in Iraq by the militants there, the United Nations said Thursday.
The U.N. children’s agency said it has documented a number of cases in which IS fighters killed the children of families trying to escape from neighbourhoods controlled by the militants.
“They are using children as a weapon of war to prevent people from fleeing,” said UNICEF’s Iraq representative, Peter Hawkins. “This just highlights how indiscriminate and catastrophic this war is.”
Iraqi troops are slowly clearing the last pockets of IS fighters from Mosul’s old city in an operation launched earlier this week. But an estimated 100,000 civilians packed into the dense terrain have slowed progress.
