Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) jihadists are using “several hundred families” in Fallujah as “human shields” as they engage in bloody battles with Iraqi troops, backed by the United States and Iran-allied Shiite militias, for control over the strategic city, reports the United Nations Refugee Agency.
“UNCHR has received reports of casualties among civilians in Falluja city centre due to heavy shelling, including seven members of one family on May 28,” William Spindler, a spokesperson for the agency officially known as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told reporters at the UN headquarters in Geneva on Tuesday. “There are also reports of several hundred families being used as human shields by ISIL in the centre of Falluja.”