Civilians desperate to flee Fallujah were having to dodge sniper fire from the Daesh group, which was keen to keep its “human shields” inside the city as Iraqi forces closed in Monday.
Families who managed to escape told of how terrorists opened fire on them as they crossed the Euphrates River on boats and makeshift rafts.
“We know from witness testimonies that civilians... are being forced to stay and are being threatened,” Nasr Muflahi, the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Iraq director, told AFP.
Footage carried by Iraqi channels showed civilians paddling for their lives on the river, others drifting in inflated wheel chambers. People are using anything that floats, from wardrobes to plastic containers.
In Amriyat Al-Fallujah, where NRC runs the camps housing most of those who have managed to escape Daesh-held areas, there are new arrivals every day. “Daesh 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,” said a 60-year-old woman who was too scared to give her name.
“I shouted at them that I would never go back. ‘Kill me now’, I said. What point is there in living if my children are suffering?,” she said.

Source ; Arab News