According to a UN High Commissioner for Refugees report, ISIS has detained thousands of civilians who fled from the area around the town of Hawija, and were trying to reach the city of Kirkuk. 12 were believed to have been killed trying to get to Kirkuk.
ISIS controls Hawija, just south of Kirkuk, and heavy airstrikes aimed at supporting a joint Iraqi-Peshmerga offensive against the town have raised sparked a civilian exodus from the area. ISIS regularly aims to stop civilians from fleeing their territory, particularly during attacks.
There are disputed reports about how many civilians ISIS has actually detained so far out of the recent exodus, with one NGO claiming 1,800, the UN saying “up to 3,000,” and Kurdish media outlets saying it was over 5,000. Massive numbers of civilians are internally displaced across Iraq.
What ISIS intends to do with the civilians is unclear. In some cases, they are accused of using them as human shields, but there have also been times where they’ve captured large numbers of people and then released them pretty quickly with no real explanation.
Hawija was the site of major demonstrations against the Iraqi government before the ISIS war, with Sunnis demonstrating against their mistreatment. It was also the site of the April 2013 massacre of protesters by the Iraqi military, which ultimately killed over 200 demonstrators.
Aug 5, 2015 British Special Forces “Dressing Up” As ISIS…What Could Go Wrong?
The “elite” British SAS special forces are dispatching over 120 troops to Syria to dress up as ISIS fighters and attack Syrian targets. In today’s Thought For The Day, James looks back at a couple of the lowlights of the bumbling SAS forces and examines the 2005 incident where the SAS was caught in Basra dressing up as Arabs and shooting Iraqis in order to fuel ethnic tensions in the country.
https://youtu.be/rRH3SJHSuc4
Here is two more on video and print!
Feb 19, 2015 ISIS was created by the CIA and Mossad In today’s video, Christopher Greene of AMTV reports on the terror group ISIS.
http://youtu.be/aQkYtmewSpQ
This second link proves the news report from across the pond accurate!
February 21, 2015 ISIS seizes U.S.-made weapons
http://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2015/02/21/newday-wedeman-isis-seizes-u-s-weapons.cnn
The SAS was also caught red-handed in Libya. In both the Basra and Libya cases, they were either in the process of escorting ‘diplomats’ to safety or had just done so. The ‘diplomats’ were actually MI6 Officers who were liasing with the local terror outfits. They are also running takfiris in Syria from their base in Gaziantep.
ISIS has not ‘detained’ these civilians. It has kidnapped them. Some have probably been murdered already.