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IS Shoots Iraqi Civilians Fleeing Fallujah

Islamic State has shot and killed civilians as they tried to flee the Iraqi city of Fallujah, according to army and aid agency sources.
Iraqi Major Ali Hanoon said militants killed seven civilians and seven defectors inside the IS-held city, west of Baghdad, as they attempted to escape on Sunday.
Major Hanoon added that since an offensive had begun to retake Fallujah in late May, IS had killed "dozens" of civilians.
The operation, in which Iraqi forces are backed by US-led coalition air strikes, stalled last week because of heavy resistance from IS.
It is estimated that 50,000 civilians remain trapped inside the city.
Ministry of Defence video showing an RAF missile attack on a terrorist supply truck
"They know that if they trap the civilians, it will slow our progress," Major Hanoon said.
A 60-year-old woman who made it to a camp in Amriyat al Fallujah, run by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), told the AFP news agency: "Daesh (IS) shot at us when we left the city from the south. 
"We could hear bullets zipping above our heads as we were crawling through the countryside."
A father-of-six who still lives in the city centre, Mohammed al Dulaimi, said: "They put a car bomb on the old bridge and tell people who want to leave the city that they will blow it up against them."
Last week, a suicide bomber reportedly blew himself up in a crowd of civilians attempting to flee, killing two people and wounded three others. 
The NRC said a number of civilians had been killed as they tried to cross the River Euphrates.
Iraq militia close in on Islamic state fighters in FallujahIraq militia close in on Islamic state fighters in Fallujah
"Our biggest fears are now tragically confirmed with civilians being directly targeted while trying to flee to safety," said Nasr Muflahi, the NRC’s country director in Iraq. 
"People are using anything that floats, from wardrobes to plastic containers," said Caroline Gluck from the UN's Refugee Agency in Iraq.
"We know that people have drowned.
"At least one person was shot by a sniper as he was on some kind of boat or dinghy."
The NRC said that while nearly 3,000 families had managed to flee the outskirts of Fallujah at the beginning of the anti-IS offensive, very few had managed to escape since then. 
Meanwhile, Iraqi forces managed to secure the largely agricultural, southern edge of Fallujah on Sunday. 

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