Mosul Refugees on Surviving ISIS & US-led Airstrikes: “Deep injustice”

A fortnight ago, the Suleiman family were hiding in their home, waiting for the liberation, but lived through another tragedy instead.

“One morning, ISIS fighters came to our house and banged on the door, saying they wanted to go on the roof. We begged them to leave, saying there were women and children here, but they didn’t care,” one family member told RT at the Rojava hospital in Erbil, located 100 kilometers from war-torn Mosul.

“They went up and started shooting, so we began to flee… and that’s when the airstrike hit. There was nothing left of the house,” the young man added.

Out of the 25 members of the Suleiman family, 15 were killed, 7 injured, and their house was demolished.

This tragedy is just one of many examples, not only of Islamic State’s (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) violence, but also of civilians being caught in the crossfire between terrorists and the US-led coalition. Asked who was to blame, a man lying on the bed said: “It was the [US-led] air force. It was jets,” he says.

IS purposefully and very often uses civilians as human shields, but this hasn’t been stopping the US-led coalition, Mosul residents told RT.

“On the day that our house was hit, a dozen other homes were destroyed by airstrikes in our neighborhood. It is a deep injustice,” a local said.

The Suleiman family’s story is one of many. Most of those treated at Rojava have been separated from their families, lost their loved ones in the fighting, and they all bear the scars of the war – even the children.

“ISIS came and kicked us out of our house. We ran looking for a safe place, and suddenly there was an explosion. My father was injured, and my brother was killed. My other brother and sister were hit in the head, and I was hit in the shoulder,” a little girl told RT.

“I don’t want to go back to Mosul, I want to stay here. It’s calm here,” she added.

The operation to free Mosul has been going on since October, with 200,000 people fleeing the city in the past several months. About 50 percent of them are children, according to UNICEF. An estimated 750,000 people still remain trapped in Mosul.

A new phase of the battle started on February 19, aimed at liberating the western parts of the city still under IS control…

Continue this report at RT

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