50,000 Iraqi civilians trapped by ISIS as Fallujah offensive draws near

Chiqui Guyjoco Tuesday, May 31, 2016

An estimated 50,000 civilians are trapped in terrible conditions as the Iraqi forces are poised to retake the Iraqi city of Fallujah from the hands of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIL) terrorist group.

Shi'ite fighters fire a rocket toward Islamic State militants on the outskirts of Fallujah, west of Baghdad. | REUTERS/STRINGER

"We are receiving hundreds of displaced Iraqis from the outskirts of Fallujah who are totally exhausted, afraid and hungry," Nasr Muflahi, country director for the Norwegian Refugee Council, told Al Jazeera.

Muflahi added that the conditions inside the city of Fallujah are getting critical by day with thousands trapped and cut off from aid and any form of protection.

The Sunni city of Fallujah, 50 km west of Baghdad, remains one of the two major city-strongholds by the ISIS terrorist group since they seized control in June 2014. On Friday, May 27, government forces helped hundreds of families leave the city but 50,000 more are still trapped.

"There is a lack of medicine and food. They are caught between the fighting between ISIL and Iraqi forces," said Omar al-Saleh, reporter for Al Jazeera.

The UN has also reported deaths by starvation as well as ISIL killings of civilians refusing to fight for the terrorist group.

"We have dramatic reports of the increase of the number of executions of men and older boys, refusing to fight on behalf of ISIL," said a spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Melissa Fleming.

UNHCR also blamed Iraqi security forces for blocking supply routes that further trapped the civilians inside Fallujah.

The operation in Fallujah started on May 22 and is led by the coalition of the Iraqi army and the allied force of the Hashed al-Shaabi umbrella group such as the Shiite Kurdish Peshmerga and the help of U.S. air forces.

"These forces will break into Fallujah in the next few hours to liberate it from Daesh," Iraqi army commander Abdelwahab al-Saadi said on Sunday, May 29.

The Iraqi army claimed that they have now surrounded the city and ready to strike.