KIRKUK, Kurdistan Region- Islamic State (ISIS) militants reportedly detained thousands of civilians on Thursday trying to flee villages around the town of Hawija southwest of Kirkuk, the United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said.
According to a UNHCR statement the group executed 12 civilians among the influx who tried to reach Kirkuk.
“Those families were fleeing and most of them were women and children, and their journey was 12 hours walk to Kirkuk,” Essa Sabil Jburi, a Sunni Hashd al-Watani commander reported. “But only 237 families made it safely to Kirkuk.”
Most of the fleeing families came from the towns of Hawija, Riyadh, Rashad and surrounding villages.
ISIS militants had reportedly blocked their path and detained them before reaching the Kurdish Peshmerga-controlled territories further north.
Peshmerga sources told Rudaw that the families who reached their defense lines safely were transported to Kirkuk and some were taken to hospital for treatment.
“We were fleeing the area because of the attacks and airstrikes on Hawija, but ISIS does not allow us to leave and always bans people from fleeing the area,” Abu Assad, a wounded escapee told Rudaw at Kirkuk hospital.
“On Thursday night when they stopped us from escaping, I witnessed many people being injured and some killed,” he said.
Hundreds of Arab families have escaped the Hawija area in recent months for fear of an anticipated Iraqi and Peshmerga offensive against ISIS in its stronghold southwest of Kirkuk.
According to tribal leader and commander of the Hawija operations Sheikh Wasfi Assi, ISIS militants have imprisoned at least 5,000 civilians in the region and more than 25,000 displaced as a result of their actions and the ongoing violence.
Hawija, 55 kilometers south west of Kirkuk, fell to ISIS in 2014 and is now considered one of the group’s major bases after Mosul.
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