The river needs to be secured as a safe zone for citizens and prevent safe retreat of Daesh. It sounds like much more needs to be done in Fallujah.

The deaths of Iraqi citizens in Fallujah are being reported by those that have already escaped to become refugees. The reports are that 50 thousand Iraqi citizens are being used as human shields and are being shot when they attempt to leave the city. No Iraqi forces should be leaving a fight that is succeeding and will end the brutal regime of Daesh.

June 6, 2016

By AFP

Baghdad (AFP) - The Islamic State group (click here) is shooting and killing civilians who try to flee Fallujah, a city besieged by Iraqi forces, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said on Sunday.

"Reports from families that NRC has been in touch with describe that civilians trying to cross the Euphrates River in order to flee the fighting are being targeted by armed opposition groups," the organisation said in a statement.

NRC runs the camps in the town of Amriyat al-Fallujah to which most of the civilians who have fled areas around the besieged jihadist bastion are being housed.

"An unidentified number of civilians have been shot and killed trying to cross the river," NRC said.

One of the only ways for civilians to try to leave the centre of Fallujah, which is littered with booby traps and roadside bombs, is to sneak out by river....